By KURT LOFT
The Tampa Tribune

CAPE CANAVERAL Robots can roam the deserts of Mars and swing through the rings of Saturn, but when it comes to fixing a glitch in space, a live person will do just fine.

That’s the message Discovery brought home Wednesday after a 15-day mission punctuated by a precarious space walk to repair damage on the International Space Station.

The 200,000-pound craft touched down at 1:01 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center after its powerless glide across the continental United States, entering Florida airspace just west of Jacksonville. It marked the first cross-country path since Columbia broke up in early 2003.

During its 6-million-mile journey, the shuttle crew delivered to the station a science module and conducted four space walks, including one by astronaut Scott Parazynski to mend a tear in a 115-foot solar panel that provides electricity to the station. The salvage job underscores the role of people in orbit, said Lynette Madison, a spokeswoman at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“It’s an excellent example of how important humans are in the space program,” she said. “They literally made tools from things that had available on the space station.”

Parazynski’s work was dangerous. No astronaut had ever gone so far outside the station, and his repairs had to be done without touching any part of a panel surging with 100 volts of electricity. Making his work all the more delicate, Parazynski had to mend the torn solar sheet while dangling from the end of a 90-foot beam that barely reached the damaged area.

“They couldn’t have done that robotically,” Madison said. “The repair took a lot of engineering know-how. What’s important is we’re learning how to fix stuff, because things go wrong in space.”

After unhitching from the space station, the crew used a camera attached to the end of the same boom to inspect for possible nicks and dings on the nosecone and wings. The inspection found no apparent problems, said commander Pamela Melroy.

Discovery’s safe homecoming – its 34th mission - led the way for the Dec. 6 launch of Atlantis on a venture to deliver to the station a European laboratory called Columbus. It will mark one of the shortest gaps between two shuttle missions.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (8130 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.