WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- NASA on Thursday decided not to repair a torn thermal blanket near the shuttle commander's window of Discovery, and announced the shuttle will return Earth next week.

    "We have cleared Discovery to re-enter and we have decided not to take any action on the thermal blanket because we think that it represents negligible concern at this time," deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told a press conference at the space center in Houston.

    According to Hale, the decision was made after days of analysis concluded the risk of serious damage to the shuttle on re-entry from the torn blanket breaking off and hitting the shuttle is "remote".

    Mission Control told Discovery by radio that it was concluded that the torn blanket "is safe for return. There's no issue."

    If the repair were necessary, Discovery's astronauts would have to conduct a fourth and unplanned spacewalk. On Wednesday, a shuttle spacewalker just completed an unprecedented repair to protruding gap fillers of heat protective tiles in two spots on the shuttle's belly.

    The shuttle is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Monday after a 13-day mission, which is the first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

    The US space agency hopes no heat protection problem would occur, leading to a repeat of the Columbia accident. The tragedy, in which the seven astronauts on board were killed, was blamed on a big chunk of insulation foam breaking off the external fuel tank and harming the shuttle wing on liftoff.

    Hale said the US space agency is not 100 percent confident about a zero risk during re-entry. But "we've assessed this risk to the very best of our engineering knowledge and we believe that it is remote, small, whatever adjective you want to put with that." Enditem