Mission Control called space shuttle Discovery after noon CDT Thursday to say that a damaged insulation blanket on the front of the shuttle is still safe.

In a transmission carried live on NASA TV, the crew was told that the mission management team decided a fourth spacewalk to repair the damage will not be needed.

The area of concern was just under one of the windows at the front of the craft.

If another spacewalk was needed, it could have pushed back Discovery's landing, which is now scheduled for early Monday morning.

The concern had been that a roughly 1-foot section of the blanket could rip away during re-entry, whip backward and slam into the shuttle, perhaps causing grave damage.

Engineers conducted wind-tunnel tests to analyze the problem.

Crew Honors Columbia

Astronauts remembered their fallen comrades in orbit Wednesday.

In a memorial from space Thursday, Discovery Commander Eileen Collins said "We will remember them." She said space explorers realize "things never dreamed."

Each astronaut aboard the space shuttle and space station offered thoughts about the crew of Columbia and others who died in the quest for space. They each wore red shirts with the patch of Columbia's mission, STS-107.

Steve Robinson said aircraft and spacecraft "have shrunk the world in a way that early generations of explorers could never have imagined."

After the astronauts finished, NASA observed three and a half minutes of silence.

Columbia ripped apart on re-entry Feb. 1, 2003, because foam from the external fuel tank had put a crack in a wing on liftoff. All seven crew members died.

They were Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon.

The shuttle is currently expected to undock from the space station Saturday.

Bush Amazed By Repairs

President George W. Bush said Thursday he was amazed by the in-orbit repairs the astronauts carried out.

He also voiced confidence in NASA managers who sent the shuttle back into space and have now cleared it to return to Earth.

Answering questions at his Texas ranch, the president said the spacewalk by astronaut Stephen Robinson was "pretty remarkable." Robinson removed two worrisome pieces of filler material from the shuttle's heat-resistent underbelly.

Asked if he thinks the shuttle was returned to space prematurely after the Colombia disaster, Bush replied he's sure NASA is making the right decisions.