Houston ? NASA gave space shuttle Atlantis the all-clear to come home today after a stem-to-stern inspection prompted by a mysterious flurry of orbital litter found no damage to the ship.

NASA could not say for certain what the five floating pieces of junk were – perhaps a plastic filler strip, maybe a garbage bag. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said there was no reason to worry.

“We are cleared for entry. Nothing was found to be missing or damaged on the thermal protection system, the heat shield of the space shuttle Atlantis or in fact any other part of the space shuttle Atlantis,” Hale said after two inspections lasting a total of 7 1/2 hours.

The shuttle is scheduled to land at 5:21 a.m. CDT at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.