Discovery astronauts awake for first full day in orbit

— -- Discovery astronauts have awoken for their first full day in orbit after Friday's spectacular launch from Kennedy Space Center seconds before midnight.

NASA had called off three countdowns earlier this week, one for stormy weather and two more to figure out a balky fuel valve engineers feared was not working properly.

A wake-up song piped into the orbiter by NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston was selected by the family of 49-year-old mission commander Rick "C.J." Sturckow, who is making his fourth shuttle flight.

"I'm back in the saddle again, out where a friend is a friend," sang Gene Autry.

Today's primary job is an inspection of Discovery's heat shields using a 50-foot boom attached to the shuttle's robotic arm.

The boom is equipped with cameras and laser sensors that will slowly scan the left and right wing leading edges, nose cap and underbelly tiles.

The images will be downlinked to analysts at Johnson Space Center in Houston who will search for any evidence of damage that could have occurred during the nine-minute ascent to orbit.

NASA officials said early Saturday that preliminary looks at launch videos were encouraging, showing no signs that pieces of insulating foam tore away from Discovery's external tank, as they did during Endeavour's July launch (without causing serious damage).

The heat shield scans are scheduled to begin at 6:19 p.m. ET and take about six hours.

NASA mission commentators reported that two small steering jets near the shuttle's nose will be shut down due to a leak, but the problem will not impact the shuttle's abilit to docking, complete its mission and re-enter Earth's atmosphere entry.

The crew will go to sleep at 5:29 a.m. Sunday to rest for docking at the International Space Station later that day — on Discovery's 25th birthday.

The shuttle will deliver more than 15,000 pounds of supplies, equipment and science experiments to the station's crew of six.