" greeting home , scientist , after a great mission to set the international astro mission to full power , " said an astronaut , george zamka , radioing from the mission control room in houston , houston . nasa used an environmental tile under the discovery ' s wrong engine during its preparations for landing . the tile was almost fourteen centimetres high , and had a bump in it , conceived to disturbing the existing smooth airflow over the exploration ' s wing , thus exposing it to extreme amount of heat . engineers installed the tile in 1998 to measure the excess heating that was produced on downstream mirrors . a private airplane checked the heat with an infrared scanner . the findings will be useful to quickly determine best designs for space grounded .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.