Space shuttle takes off on historic flight

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Discovery blasted off into orbit Tuesday, opening a new chapter in space history more than two years after the Columbia tragedy grounded NASA's shuttle fleet. However, several hours after the launch, questions arose about some debris falling from the shuttle.

“It’s a great day,” said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

Thousands of onlookers cheered as Discovery rose from its launch pad at 10:39 a.m. ET, its white plume blending in with the cottony clouds over NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Shuttle commander Eileen Collins, making her fourth spaceflight — and possibly her last flight before retirement — told controllers later that "we had by far the smoothest ascent" she had ever experienced.

Amazingly vivid video imagery, transmitted from a camera mounted on the shuttle's external fuel tank, appeared to show at least one piece of debris falling away from the spacecraft during the ascent, but it wasn’t clear if the shuttle’s sensitive skin had been jeopardized.

More than 100 cameras captured Discovery's rise, and Hale said the space agency would be going over all the video footage “frame by frame” for any signs of hazards or damage.

A 1½-inch-wide bit of tile captured on camera appeared to fly off the shuttle’s belly, on the edge of a door that encloses the nose landing gear. It was not clear if the tile had been struck by anything. Pieces of tile, which protect the shuttle from searing heat on return to Earth, have been lost on past flights without preventing a safe homecoming.

"We have not lost a tile. We may have lost a piece of a tile," said John Shannon, a NASA operations manager.

Also, a large object — perhaps a piece of foam insulation — seemed to fly off from the giant external fuel tank but did not hit the shuttle itself, Shannon said.

“The big question is, what is that?” Shannon said. He said it was too early to determine whether the debris posed any danger to the shuttle. Shannon said the cameras have provided the space agency with more detailed images than it has ever seen before, and it was not clear whether the debris was anything out of the ordinary.

“I fully expected we would see things that we hadn’t seen in the past,” said Shannon.

Shannon also disclosed that the nose cone of the fuel tank hit a bird during liftoff.

NASA managers said they would take several days to make a full judgment of any damage to the shuttle and decide how to deal with it.

It was a piece of flying debris that doomed Columbia in 2003, leading to the deaths of the seven astronauts aboard. That tragedy was not far from anyone’s minds Tuesday.

“There will only be one thing better than today’s launch, and that will be the landing in 12 days,” said shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach. NASA's associate administrator for space operations, William Readdy, said the space agency owed the Columbia crew and their families “a debt of gratitude.”

Some of those families were in attendance for the launch at Cape Canaveral, as was first lady Laura Bush and her brother-in-law, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Tuesday's smooth liftoff came in sharp contrast to Discovery's first launch attempt, 13 days earlier, which was marred by a launch-pad accident and a mysterious fuel-gauge glitch that forced a halt to the countdown.

Mission managers said they would have considered granting an exception to their launch rules if the glitch reappeared, but the issue never arose: NASA said all of the sensors worked just as expected, avoiding a potential controversy over the space agency's post-Columbia commitment to safety.

Hale said any decision on changing the rules would have to wait until after Discovery landed.

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