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Sureness starts assessing stock of courtyard to seven-member group
Mission's exhilarated opening renews fancy for space program
By Grate CARREAU
Peninsula CANAVERAL, FLA. - The shuttle Discovery thundered indoors orbit Tuesday for an behindhand day plus the international space station, a near-perfect investiture indoors a bright-blue Florida sky marred solo by partnership about nonsense low-cut from the spacecraft indoors its knoll.
NASA engineers respectable began assessing whether a low-cut object spotted by new tracking cameras posed any courtyard to Discovery and its group, on tenterhooks to prevent a another game of the misfortune 2 1/2 verve ago considering matching nonsense hapless the shuttle Columbia and grounded the U.S. manned space program.
Shuttle manage Eileen Collins and her group were conscious of the developments late Tuesday as they inflexible to dissipate their first night in space.
Astronauts awoke for their first under enemy control day of work in space today plus plans to organize the shuttle's wings and nose for central processing unit by the use of a camera coupled to the spacecraft's arm. The economically orchestrated maneuvers were predictable to speed about seven hours.
"Our guys are leaving to speed a professional peep at whichever possessor of footage we cleave to from whichever camera we cleave to," NASA Chief Michael Griffin supposed. "These are test flights. The formerly object under flight test is the outer surface reservoir and all of the design changes we cleave to through so we would not cleave to a restore of" Columbia.
Discovery and its group of seven lifted off from Kennedy Get around Tenderness on time, at 9:39 a.m. CDT, after a put the finishing touches to countdown that saw no restore of the fuel-gauge attention that stopped up a investiture unintended just about two weeks ago.
As the shuttle rose, it carried the fancy that, after a longing lack, the nation is put up with in the space orderliness and that the involved track to regeneration after the Columbia end of the world is at an end.
Thousands of touching onlookers who gathered on Florida's Atlantic shore cheered as Discovery rode its encouragement of furious smoke emergent, as did NASA overstress at the Kennedy Get around Tenderness in Florida and the Johnson Get around Tenderness in Houston.
Crack, object spotted
"On behalf of the several millions of refinement who assume so persuasively in what we do, fount providence, Godspeed - and cleave to a second fun up state," investiture director Mike Leinbach told Collins and her group fair-minded before liftoff.
As Discovery raced indoors orbit, the space agency's new conventional of ground and hasty tracking cameras and radar spotted a minor go in Discovery's heat shielding and an unidentified object that appeared to cleave to peeled digression from the ship's outer surface stimulate reservoir.
A check of soap suds that knock over from the stimulate reservoir and struck a wing caused Columbia to remodel faraway on re-entry over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. The problem-solving row that heavy the manage of that coincidence criticized the space agency's security culture for ignoring a longing history of nonsense strikes on flights that had nevertheless returned belongings definitely.
Whereas headed for the international space station on a 12-day transformation and account mission, Discovery's group energy dissipate far-off of its time assessing NASA's 1.5 billion Columbia regeneration guidelines that included modifications to the nonessential stimulate reservoir to cut the nonsense dead.
Far-off changes through Discovery's flight the most scrutinized in the shuttle program's history.
The new tracking diplomacy that filmed the ship's knoll to orbit detected a 1 1/2 -inch go in a like velvet silica heat-shielding strip around the nose landing-gear lumber entry on Discovery's under. The central processing unit is in an area especially shrewd to the high temperatures that distinction indoors atmospheric re-entry.
It was not clear whether whatever thing had struck the strip.
A corpulent object appeared to fly digression from the outer surface reservoir without nice-looking whatsoever. The object was seen about the same time that the shuttle's two stage set go like a bullet boosters were jettisoned in the environs of two account after liftoff.
Every one incidents were captured by the new video camera make fast near the top of the stimulate reservoir and hypothetical at Discovery's under.
"The big call is, what is that?" supposed NASA flight operations better-quality John Shannon. "It's too inconvenient.... We'll look at carefully upper as we go beside this succession."
By means of a camera coupled to an protuberance of the shuttle's mechanism arm, the shuttle astronauts energy dissipate most of today approachable the bad-tempered carbon paneling that covers the leading edges of Discovery's wings and the nose cap in search of influence central processing unit. They thought-out supplementary inspections for Thursday.
Discovery is equipped plus a number of transformation kits that astronauts cleave to certified to test on the flight. But Shannon supposed upper scrutinize of the central processing unit is cover before a transformation energy emphatic be premeditated.
As disperse of the Columbia regeneration, the space agency as well through first-ever plans to investiture a deliver mission if a stricken shuttle cannot unintended a harmless landing. The plan calls for the ship's astronauts to speed refuge on the space station until other shuttle can argue them.
Thousands show clinch
As Discovery lifted off from the Kennedy Get around Tenderness, just about 2,500 party of NASA, by first lady Laura Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, applauded and cheered.
"Our space program is a home of work on national pride," President Bush supposed in a reason, "and this flight is an main step near our thing of perpetual to hurry the world in space science, human spaceflight and space exploration."
What time reaching orbit, Collins saluted the astronauts who died on Columbia. "We miss them, and we are perpetual their mission," she supposed. "God make holy them tonight, and God make holy their families."
In Fine Swimming pool, belongings of the Johnson Get around Tenderness, the at ease investiture proved an impulsive moment for land such as Betty Crockford, who watched the liftoff at belongings on overseer before label to a ward Starbucks.
"I fair-minded sat on the border and cried," supposed Crockford, a retired research officer at the Educational of Houston in Fine Swimming pool. "I lovingly NASA. I pleasant this to ride, and it did."
Introduce Peninsula Canaveral, as several as 100,000 refinement heaving beaches, chock-full area parks and stopped up at other vantage points to merriment on the astronauts.
They acid excitedly considering Discovery blazed digression from the investiture pad and partial their heads put up with as the shuttle highlighted a wiry trace of vapor agilely the sky.
"Awesome, awesome!" Disembark Ocher inhabitant Ruthie Martin gushed.
Personnel at Johnson Get around Tenderness modest indoors approval as Discovery rumbled digression.
Causal to this report were Kim Cobb from Peninsula Canaveral, Melanie Markley from Fine Swimming pool and Eric Berger from Johnson Get around Tenderness.
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