" coming home , discovery , after a great program to bring the world space station to constant powers , " declared an astronaut , george zamka , radioing from the project controlling center in norman , texas . nasa tested an experimental marble under the discovery ' s rear shoulder during its approach for landing . the tile was almost eight centimetres thick , and had a bump in it , intended to disturb the previously smooth laminar over the shuttle ' s wing , potentially exposing it to high amounts of heat . engineers installed the tile in space to measure the additional current that was generation on both tiles . a small airplane monitored the heat with an infrared camera . the image will be employed to slowly determine efficient designing for space atlantis .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.