Success in Space

From Foxnews:

SPACE CENTER, Houston — An astronaut on Discovery (search) successfully finished a first-of-its-kind emergency repair job on the space shuttle Wednesday when he pulled two strips of protruding fabric from the shuttle's belly.

"You guys did a great job," Mission Control (search) radioed after the operation. "Congratulations."

Astronaut Stephen Robinson said both pieces came out easily. He did not have to use a makeshift hacksaw put together in orbit that he brought along just in case.

"That came out very easily, probably even less force," Robinson said of the second piece. "I don't see any more gap filler. ... I'm doing my own inspection here. It is a very nice orbital belly."

They have video at Foxnews' homepage as well...

From NASA:

STS-114’s third spacewalk is now in the history books. The excursion featured the first-ever on-orbit repair of a Space Shuttle’s heat shield and attachment of a stowage platform onto the Station.

The orbital excursion began at 4:48 a.m. EDT and concluded at 10:49 a.m. EDT.

The heat shield repair efforts occurred quickly and just as planned on Space Shuttle Discovery’s underbelly. STS-114 Mission Specialist Steve Robinson removed gap fillers that were protruding from two areas between heat-shielding tiles on Discovery. Robinson gently tugged the gap fillers until they came out.

After he removed the second protrusion, Robinson declared, "It looks like this big patient is cured."

+ View video of Robinson removing the gap filler