美国宇航局（NASA）负责人7月31日表示，他们将在8月1日判定“发现号”隔热层凸起的两块材料是否会对飞船返回地球造成威胁，以免“发现号”重蹈“哥伦比亚号”航天飞机的悲剧。宇航局计划让宇航员在太空中进行修复工作。外电报道如下：A couple short strips of fabric¹ dangling² from Discovery's belly³ may require an unprecedented⁴ repair by spacewalking astronauts, if engineers determine there's even a possibility that the problem could endanger the shuttle during descent, NASA said Sunday.

Teams of experts were scrambling⁵ to understand just how serious the problem was, with "strong arguments" raging on what to do, if anything.

The trouble has nothing to do with foam⁶ or other launch debris⁷, but rather the accidental slippage of ceramic-fiber cloth used to fill the thin gaps between thermal⁸ tiles, which some engineers worry could trigger potentially treacherous⁹ overheating during re-entry.

Spacewalking意为“太空行走，太空漫步”，即宇宙员步出航天器后在太空中的行走或舱外活动，在上文中作形容词“进行太空行走的”。