Space Shuttle Discovery Blasts Off

Source: NYT/AP

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 23, 2007

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven rocketed into orbit Tuesday in pursuit of the international space station, where a formidable construction job awaits them. Discovery blasted off at 11:38 a.m., ducking through clouds. It carried a giant Tinkertoy-type link that must be installed at the space station before European and Japanese laboratories can arrive.

Despite a forecast calling for rain right at launch time, the weather ended up cooperating. And a chunk of ice on plumbing between the external fuel tank and Discovery -- 4 inches by 1 1/2 inches -- was deemed too small by NASA to pose a serious launch hazard. It appeared to be melting as the countdown entered its final minutes....

Discovery's fuel tank was modified following the last mission to prevent dangerous ice buildup from the super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and reduce the potential for launch debris. The patch of ice that had NASA scrambling less than two hours before launch cropped up on a pipe that carries the hydrogen from the tank into the shuttle, and was stuck mostly to a baggy material. It appeared to harmlessly break loose at the moment of liftoff, as NASA suspected it would.

At least six pieces of foam insulation fell off the fuel tank during liftoff, but it was well past the crucial first two minutes and therefore posed no risk to Discovery, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief.

The shuttle wings, however, were not altered in any way, even though a safety engineering group pressed for a delay because of concern over three panels with possible flaws. (Commander Pamela) Melroy, only the second woman to lead a shuttle mission, expressed her confidence late last week about flying Discovery, as have many of the senior managers who decided to skip wing repairs. A possible cracking problem with the protective coating on three of the wing panels was deemed an acceptably low risk. A hole in the wing brought down Columbia in 2003, the result of a strike by a slab of fuel-tank foam insulation at liftoff....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Space-Shuttle.html

Sky so blue, and a large crowd viewing. We got stuck in some of the traffic, but it was nice to sse all the people enjoying the day. River was full of boats, people were camped on the causeway along the river and it is a warm sunny day. We wish the crew a safe journey.

Last I heard, Engineers were urging NASA to replace the Carbon/Carbon heat shields due to cracks they didn't like the looks of. I hope everything goes O.K.