Astronauts inspect Discovery for damage

Discovery's astronauts inspected their spaceship for launch damage, operating a 30-meter movable arm with lasers and a camera mounted on its tip.

NASA engineers, meanwhile, tried to determine whether an apparently chipped thermal tile on the belly of the shuttle poses any danger to the spacecraft and its crew of seven.

Discovery lifted off Tuesday on the first shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy 2 1/2 years ago. The movable boom - operated by the astronauts via remote control from inside the spaceship - was added to the shuttle after Columbia was destroyed by damage to it thermal shield at liftoff, the AP reports.