WASHINGTON, June 13: Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery spotted an unidentified object floating behind the craft as well as a bump on the shuttle rudder but neither was cause for concern, Nasa said on Friday.

After carrying out routine testing the day before Discovery is due to land back on Earth on Saturday, “the crew indicated they had seen a one-foot- to 1.5-foot-long rectangular object floating away from the shuttle from behind the rear portion of the right wing,” the US space agency said.

“Shortly afterwards, the crew described what they called a ‘bump’ on the left side trailing edge of Discovery’s rudder,” it said in a statement. The object seen floating behind the shuttle could be a clip from inside the rudder speed brake, said William Jeffs, a spokesman at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.—AFP