" welcome home , discovering , after a great mission to bring the worldwide aero agency to full power , " spoke an individual , george zamka , radioing from the mission control center in norman , oklahoma . nasa tested an observation tile under the endeavour ' s left wing during its climb for touchdown . the tile was almost eight centimetres diameter , and had a bump in it , intended to disturbed the otherwise continuous airflow over the shuttle ' s wing , potentially exposing it to high amounts of flame . he installed the pattern in order to measure the excess temperature that was generated on downstream tiles . a nasa airplanes monitored the heat with an infrared camera . the findings will be used to help develop better designed for later shuttles .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.