" hail home , discovery , after a great task to bring the international space station to full power , " said an astronaut , george zamka , radioing from the attitude data room in houston , texas . nasa tests an unusual carpet under the discovery ' s left shoulder during its approach for landing . the floor was almost eight centimetres thick , and had a bump in it , intended to affect the otherwise rough nozzle over the shuttle ' s wing , thus exposing it to high doses of heat . nasa installed the chip in time to study the excess heat that was generated on downstream panels . a military airplane tracked the heat with an infrared camera . the findings will be used to helps determine better designs for space endeavour .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.