" welcome home , discoveries , after a good mission to bring the international space platform to maximum power , " said an astronaut , james zamka , radioing from the expedition controlled centre in houston , texas . nasa sent an experimental tile under the challenger ' s left foot during its approach for landing . the tile was almost eight centimetres broad , and had a bumps in it , intended to damage the otherwise smooth airflow over the discover ' s wing , thus exposing it to high amounts of heat . engineers installed the installation in 1998 to measure the excess warmth that was generated on downstream tiles . a military ship monitoring the heat with an ir camera . the findings will be analyzed to help develop better designs for future spaceship .
Houston is George Zamka's hometown.