CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – Space shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts blasted off yesterday on one of Nasa’s final servicing missions to the International Space Station.
With a brilliant flash of light and a thundering roar, the shuttle lifted off at 6.21am, shattering the pre-dawn calm around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch marked the start of Nasa’s 131st shuttle mission, and Discovery was scheduled to reach the space station tomorrow for a nine-day stay.
“The vehicle is clean, weather is good and this team is ready. It is time for you to rise to orbit. Good luck and Godspeed,” launch director Pete Nickolenko radioed to the Discovery crew shortly before lift-off.
“Let’s do it,” replied commander Alan Poindexter. “We’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Discovery is carrying an Italian-built cargo hauler filled with equipment, experiments, food and supplies for the space station, which has been under construction about 355km (220 miles) above Earth since 1998.
The US plans to stop flying Discovery, and sister ships Atlantis and Endeavour, after three more missions to stock the station with spare parts and gear too big or bulky to load on other spaceships.
The shuttles, which can carry about 50 tonnes a time to the station’s orbit, are being retired due to cost and safety concerns.
The US space agency is turning over cargo deliveries to two commercial firms, Space Exploration Technologies of California, and Orbital Sciences Corp of Virginia. Station partners Russia, Europe and Japan also have vessels that can haul cargo to the outpost.
The Obama administration wants to cancel the shuttle’s follow-on programme, called Constellation, which aimed to return astronauts to the moon in 2020.
An independent review found the $108 billion (€80 billion) programme was severely underfunded, with no hope of reaching its goal without a $6 billion a year increase in Nasa’s $18 billion annual budget.
Instead, Mr Obama is pushing a technology development initiative aimed at an eventual international mission to Mars. Legislators, particularly from southern states with employment ties to the Constellation programme, have been sharply critical of the president’s plan. – (Reuters)
