Shuttle spacewalker set for risky repair work

DISCOVERY astronauts are today set to perform a high-stakes task that has never before been attempted: sending a spacewalker beneath the craft to repair material sticking out from the ship’s thermal tile belly.

NASA says the protruding material could cause dangerous overheating during re-entry and lead to another Columbia-type disaster.

The agency will put astronaut Stephen Robinson on the space station’s 18-metre robotic arm as part of an unrehearsed manoeuvre.