CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) - Weather conditions looked better for a possible landing of the space shuttle Discovery Friday in Florida, a

NASA spokeswoman said, after engineers found no signs of damage on its heat shield.

Experts analyzed the images and data collected Wednesday during a final inspection of the heat shield on the spacecraft's nose and wings before its return to Earth, said Tracy Young, spokeswoman at the Kennedy Space Center here. "They haven't found anything," she said.

"There is a possibility of weather improvement for a landing at Kennedy Space Center," she told AFP.

Mission officials were to meet Thursday to give a technical green light to a landing Friday, weather permitting, at one of three sites. The Kennedy Space Center on the East Coast is the preferred choice of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

On its first orbit of Earth, Discovery and its seven-member crew is scheduled to touch down at 3:56 pm (2056 GMT) Friday at Kennedy. In a second orbit, if needed, the landing could be made at Kennedy and two other options, in the western US: Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico.

If no landing can be made Friday, the same options would be available Saturday. But a landing then would be crucial because Discovery's 12-day mission was extended by a day to allow for an additional space walk to fold a stubborn solar array panel on the International Space Station.

That extension halved the shuttle's two-day safety cushion for return to Earth: the spacecraft will only have one day's supply of oxygen and electrical power left Friday.

NASA engineers said inspections conducted after Discovery's nighttime launch on December 11 and shortly before the space shuttle docked with the space station had found no damage to the orbiter's heat shield.

Heat shield inspections on the shuttles have become routine since the February 2003 Columbia tragedy.

Columbia's heat shield was pierced by foam insulation that peeled off its fuel tank during liftoff, causing the shuttle to disintegrate during its return to Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board.

The Discovery crew carried out four space walks to rewire and install new equipment on the space station.

Shuttle astronauts also delivered more than 3,500 pounds (1,587 kilograms) of equipment and supplies to the space station, and will be returning to Earth with a bit more than that to free up room on the orbiting laboratory, NASA said.

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