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| The space shuttle Discovery lifts off from pad
39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 26,
2005. (Reuters) |
Discovery and seven astronauts blasted off Tuesday on America's first
manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 2
1/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more
safety-conscious.
At stake were not only the lives of
the astronauts, but also America's pride in its technological prowess
, the fate of the U.S. space program and
the future of space exploration itself.
"Our long wait may be over. So on behalf of the
many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do, good luck,
Godspeed
and have a little
fun up there," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right
before liftoff.
Space program employees and relatives of both the Discovery and
Columbia crews watched nervously as the shuttle rose from its pad at 10:39
a.m., climbed into a hazy midsummer sky, pierced two decks of clouds, and
headed out over the ocean in the most scrutinized launch in NASA history.
Two chase planes and more than 100 cameras documented the ascent from
every possible angle to capture any sign of flying debris of the sort that
doomed the last flight.
The multitude of images will not be fully analyzed and NASA will not
give a final verdict on whether Discovery is safe to return to Earth until
halfway through the 12-day flight.
The fuel-gauge problem that thwarted a launch
attempt two weeks ago did not resurface before liftoff, to NASA's great
relief, and the countdown
was remarkably smooth. The space agency had been prepared to bend its
safety rules to get the shuttle flying.
During the mission, commander Eileen Collins and her crew will deliver
supplies to the international space station and test new techniques for
inspecting and patching the shuttle in orbit.
The 114th shuttle liftoff came after painful self-examination on NASA's
part, extensive safety modifications to the spacecraft and many months of
hurdles and setbacks. A launch attempt July 13 was scrapped after one of
four critical hydrogen-fuel gauges in Discovery's giant orange external
tank failed just two hours before liftoff.
Hundreds of engineers chased the problem, which had cropped up three
months earlier in a fueling test. In the end, they could not fully explain
the trouble but fixed some bad electrical grounding inside the shuttle in
hopes that might solve it.
The space agency said it was prepared to relax a rule, instituted after
the 1986 Challenger explosion, that required that all four gauges be
working for launch.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the shuttle was as safe as NASA
could make it, but was still a risky venture.
"Some things simply are inherent to the design of the bird and cannot be made
better without going and getting a new generation of spacecraft. That's as
true for the space shuttle as it is for your toaster oven,"
he told The Associated Press on the eve of launch.
(BBC) | 
Updated: 2005-07-27 09:17
