Spacewalk shortened by astronaut's cut glove

HOUSTON, Aug 15 (Reuters) A spacewalking astronaut was forced to cut short his work and return to the International Space Station today when he found a small hole in his spacesuit glove, NASA said.

Three-time spacewalker Rick Mastracchio was not in any danger but was ordered back to the station's airlock as a precaution, said mission commentator Kyle Herring. He returned to the station without incident.

''The suit is perfectly fine,'' Herring said. ''There are many layers to the suit as a precaution.'' The astronauts had completed the major tasks of their spacewalk, which was the third since Endeavour's arrival at the space station last Friday. The outing was to prepare the complex for its first new module in six years.

Mastracchio's spacewalking partner, Clay Anderson, remained outside to finish up his work. NASA decided to leave two experiments that the astronauts had planned to retrieve outside the station and reschedule the task for another time.

''The gloves were good. I don't know where this hole came from,'' Mastracchio radioed to Mission Control in Houston.

NASA found a damaged glove after a spacewalk in December and implemented safety checks every 30 minutes during future outings to look for damage. The hole in Mastracchio's left glove was found during a routine check.

Mastracchio's spacewalk lasted about four hours and had been scheduled for another two hours when it was cut short.

''It sure got quiet all of a sudden,'' said Anderson, who had been bantering with his partner for most of the outing.

''Want me to sing?'' offered astronaut Tracy Caldwell, who was overseeing the spacewalk from shuttle Endeavour's flight deck.

NASA hopes the arrival of the new module, scheduled for October, will not be delayed due to renewed concerns about the space shuttles' fuel tanks.

Shuttle Columbia was destroyed and seven astronauts killed in 2003 because of a heat shield breach caused when a piece of foam insulation fell off its tank and hit the ship during liftoff.

The tanks were remodeled, but a piece of falling insulation hit shuttle Endeavour during its launch on August 8.

REPAIR DECISION DUE Managers today were still evaluating whether a small but deep cut in two of Endeavour's heat-resistant belly tiles would need to be repaired during another spacewalk. A decision was expected later today.

On Friday, NASA planned to begin addressing the larger issue of whether any changes would be needed before the shuttle Discovery is cleared for flight on the next space station assembly mission in October.

Discovery is to carry a small compartment called Harmony that will serve as the connection hub for laboratories built by Europe and Japan that are scheduled to be sent aloft in December and in 2008.

NASA has just three years to finish at least 11 space station assembly missions before it retires the shuttles, which are the only vehicles suited to the job as space freighters.

A final spacewalk of the mission is scheduled for Friday, but NASA is considering delaying the outing to Saturday if the shuttle heat shield needs to be repaired. Another option is to add two more days and a fifth spacewalk to Endeavour's mission, which already has been extended from 11 days to 14.

Reuters SZ VP0137