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Shuttle Discovery blasts into orbit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-27 08:29

NASA successfully launched space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday after a 2-1/2 year struggle to rebuild the shuttle program following the fatal Columbia disaster.

The shuttle, carrying seven crew members, soared into slightly hazy skies, leaving behind a trail of smoke and flames, while the roar of its booster rockets rattled windows and shook the ground across Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Shuttle Discovery blasts into orbit
The space shuttle Discovery lifts off from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 26, 2005. [Reuters]

"I want to ask you all to take note of what you saw here today," said NASA's new administrator Michael Griffin, basking in a palpable sense of relief that swept through the launch management team after Discovery safely reached orbit.

"The power and the majesty of the launch, of course, but also the competence and the professionalism, the sheer gall, the pluckiness, the grittiness of this team that pulled this program out of the depths of despair two years ago and made it fly."

Discovery's main mission on the 12-day space flight under veteran astronaut Eileen Collins is to test new safety measures and heat shield repair techniques introduced since sister ship Columbia disintegrated over Texas on February 1, 2003.

Columbia's wing had been damaged by falling foam insulation on liftoff, and superheated atmospheric gases tore into the breach when the shuttle came back to land 16 days later. Seven astronauts died.

NASA has spent more than $1 billion on safety upgrades since then, and worked to correct what investigators called a "broken safety culture" that was too dismissive of risk.

"We know that the folks back on the planet Earth are just feeling great right now and our thanks to everybody for all the super work that's been done over the past 2 1/2 years to get us flying again," Collins told mission control in Houston just short of three hours after the picture-perfect launch.

Discovery's other main mission is to deliver several tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, whose construction has been on hold since the remaining three-shuttle fleet was grounded in the aftermath of Columbia.
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