Four-time shuttle astronaut Tom Jones this week on planetary radio. I'm on the radio. Hi everyone, welcome to Public Radio's travel show that takes you to the final

frontier.

I'm Matt Kaplan.

The brakes are on, here I go.

Okay, I've got for you and I'm pulling, coming out very easily.

Very nice.

Okay, that was a pound and a half a fourth.

That was astronaut Stephen Robinson, easily plucking out the filler material between

tiles on the underside of shuttle discovery. No forseps, no hacksaw, just a gloved hand.

And the second strip of offending material was just as easy to deal with.

Okay, that came out very easily, probably even less force.

It looks like this big patient is cured.

How be that?

NASA later decided that the remaining concern, a puffed-up blanket of material near the shuttle's nose,

would not be a problem, as discovery screamed earthward on Monday morning.

As we go to broadcast, the Return to Flight Mission is just hours from its return to Terra Firma, with two chances for an early morning landing at the Kennedy

Space Center followed by two more at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

You might think from some reports that this mission was about no more than a repair job.

Far from it.

Essentially, everything else on board worked exactly as it should, and Discovery met all its

objectives at the International Space Station.

Tom Jones was watching along with many of us as the first shuttle in two and a half years circled the

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