Wednesday, July 27 2005 11:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston (US): National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reported sighting two pieces of debris falling off the space shuttle Discovery as it took off yesterday (July 26, 2005), on its first flight after Columbia tragedy.

One was a piece of tile, about 3.8 cm long, which appeared to have come off right landing gear on nose, NASA officials said. Origin of the other, bigger, piece of debris was not known.

Officials said they would not decide for the next several days whether the shuttle is safe for the return journey.

Two chase planes and more than 100 cameras documented the ascent from every possible angle, to capture any sign of flying debris of the sort that doomed Columbia.

The observations, one by radar, one by a new camera mounted on the external tank, show two pieces of debris at the time when two solid rocket boosters fell away from the shuttle.

Julie Payette, at Johnson Space Center's mission control, informed the Discovery crew about this shortly before the astronauts' bed time.

Payette said the observations of debris would not change tomorrow's (July 28, 2005) plans on the shuttle, which include the extension of a 100-foot robotic arm, to observe the wings and nose of the space shuttle for potential damage from debris during the ascent.

Space shuttle Columbia was damaged when a chunk of foam fell from its external tank during the first 90 seconds of its launch and clipped its wing.