" greeting in , discoveries , after a great mission to bring the indian astro station to full energy , " declared an astronaut , george zamka , radioing from the mission control headquarters in houston , texas . nasa tested an experimental tile under the discovery ' s left wing during its approach for landing . the carpet was almost eight centimetres high , and had a drop in it , intended to disturb the otherwise smooth subsonic over the shuttle ' s wing , thus introducing it to excessive amounts of heat . they installed the ceramic in order to investigate the excess electricity that was generated on downstream tiles . a military airplane recorded the heat with an infrared camera . the findings will be used to help establish better designs for future spaceship .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.