NASA Hails Smooth Launch

NASA officials and launch managers were pleased Tuesday following a clean countdown and flawless launch of space shuttle Discovery from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach said the launch team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center was able to study a potential problem of ice buildup without jeopardizing the shuttle while still launching on time.

"It was one of the cleanest countdowns we've had since I've been launch director," Leinbach said.

Discovery and its seven astronauts have a tight schedule that calls for placing the new Harmony segment to the International Space Station, moving a tower of solar arrays already in space to a new location and overseeing the station crew rotation that will see Discovery astronaut Dan Tani and station resident Clayton Anderson switch places.

"(There is) just a tremendous set of challenges in front of us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations.

There won't be much time to savor the liftoff, though, because preparations are already under way to get Atlantis over to the launch pad for a Dec. 6 launch.

"This is exactly what the (launch) teams have trained multiple years for," Gerstenmaier said.

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The 26-year-old U.S. space shuttle program has launched 120 flights -- including Discovery's mission on Tuesday -- and has 13 to go before the fleet is retired.

Discovery's launch sets the stage for the arrival of partner laboratories to the International Space Station.

Here are some facts about the mission.

* Space shuttle Discovery is on its 34th flight and the third of four shuttle missions planned for this year.

* The shuttle's fuel tank originally was to fly on the first mission after the 2003 Columbia disaster. It served as a test article before it was rebuilt and recertified for flight.

* The Harmony module aboard the shuttle is the first new addition to the space station's living space since September 2001.

* The Harmony module was built in Italy by the European Space Agency, which took on the cost of building it in exchange for NASA launching its lab and other components to orbit.

* Harmony joins three U.S. station segments -- the Destiny lab, Unity node and Quest airlock.

* The spacecraft with which NASA intends to replace the shuttle, called Orion vehicles, are being designed to dock at Harmony.

* During Discovery's 10-day stay at the station, five different astronauts will make spacewalks.

Technorati : Smooth Launch

Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off at 12:00 a.m :Discovery Reaches Orbit :HURRAY !!

HURRAY !! Discovery Reaches Orbit

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Image Above: Space shuttle Discovery leaps from its launch pad Tuesday morning to start STS-120. Image credit: NASA + View larger image

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The crew of STS-120 is safely in orbit and on their way to the International Space Station following a flawless liftoff from NASA"s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery are to spend 14 days in space during the mission. Objectives for the flight include delivering a new segment called Harmony to the station, along with new station crew member Dan Tani. Tani will stay on the orbiting laboratory and Discovery will bring current station resident Clayton Anderson back to Earth. Discovery's crew will also move a tower of solar arrays to its new position on the orbiting laboratory.

Space Shuttle crew leave the Crew and Check-Out building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007. From left to right: First row: Pilot George Zamka, left, Commander Pamela Melroy. Second row: Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson. Third row: Astronaut Daniel Tani , left partially hidden, and Douglas Wheelock. Last row: Astronaut Scott Parazynski and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift off Tuesday. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

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Discovery blasted off at 12.00 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.

Launch director Mike Leinbach wished the crew good luck and Godspeed just before liftoff.

"We're ready to take Harmony to her new home," replied commander Pamela Melroy, referring to the new space station compartment aboard Discovery.

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.

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.

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.

Discovery and its crew are embarking on a two-week mission that is considered the most challenging and complex in the nine years of orbital assembly of the international space station.

The shuttle is carrying up an Italian-built live-in compartment, about the size of a small bus, that the astronauts will attach to the space station. The name Harmony was the choice of schoolchildren who took part in a national competition. About 130 of those youngsters traveled to Cape Canaveral to witness the launch.

Also on hand for the launch was "Star Wars" director and writer George Lucas. Packed aboard Discovery is the lightsaber used by the character Luke Skywalker in 1983's "Return of the Jedi" to mark the 30th anniversary of the first "Star Wars" film.

Europe and Japan's laboratories will link up with Harmony once they are launched by shuttles over the next few months. The European lab, named Columbus, is targeted for a Dec. 6 launch. Discovery's on-time departure Tuesday kept the Columbus mission on track.

"Congratulations everybody. The beans are on," an animated Leinbach told his team once Discovery safely reached orbit. NASA has a postlaunch tradition of celebrating with beans and cornbread.

"Let's get on to the next launch in December," said Christopher Scolese, NASA's No. 2 man.

After they arrive at the space station on Thursday, Discovery's astronauts also will move a massive girder and set of solar wings from one part of the orbiting complex to another. That work will involve extending radiators as well as the folded solar wings 240 feet from tip to tip when outstretched.

In all, five spacewalks are planned, four to complete this construction job and one to test a method for fixing damaged shuttle thermal tiles using a caulking gun and high-tech goo. The demonstration with sample tiles was added after Endeavour suffered a gouge to its belly during the last launch in August from a piece of flyaway fuel-tank foam.

Once Discovery leaves, the three space station residents one of whom will be dropped off by the shuttle will face even more construction work to prepare for the European lab's arrival.

Discovery's crew includes an Italian astronaut making his first spaceflight, Paolo Nespoli.

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+ Harmony Node 2
+ Space Shuttle Discovery

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