Shuttle Is Off on Spacewalk, Science Flight : Discovery: Launch is briefly delayed by storms. Laser pulses will be beamed to Earth to learn more about global climate and how it is changing.
The space shuttle Discovery and its six astronauts rocketed into orbit Friday on a mission that includes a laser show, the release and capture of a satellite and the first free-flying spacewalk in 10 years.
The space shuttle lifted off nearly two hours late because of thunderstorms, rising from the launch pad at 3:23 p.m. PDT and piercing high wispy clouds as it arced out over the Atlantic.
“It’s time to fly,” said launch controller Jeff Lauffer.
Discovery’s commander, Navy Capt. Richard (Dick) Richards responded: “We’ll see y’all in about a week or so.”
Applause and cheers erupted from the launch control center a few miles away from the launch pad when Discovery took off.
“What you saw there was some relief from the frustrations we experienced over the past few weeks,” launch director Robert Sieck said in a news conference after Discovery was safely in orbit.
Sieck attributed workers’ relief to the long wait this afternoon, uncertain weather and frustration over the previous launch attempt, which ended in the engine shutdown of another shuttle.
“It took some patience and it took some time,” Sieck said. “But like most launches, the harder they are to achieve, the better they feel when they finally go.”
Richards admitted he’d had his doubts.
“We didn’t think for a while we were going to do it, but you all came through for us,” he told Mission Control.
During the nine-day mission, a $25-million laser aboard Discovery will beam pulses down to Earth and measure the light bounced back from clouds, atmospheric particles and the planet’s surface. Scientists hope to learn more about global climate and how it’s changing.
Long-term warming and cooling trends are linked to the amount of radiation trapped beneath or reflected off airborne particles called aerosols, and the pulses will help scientists measure the radiation.
Each of the laser pulses emitted from the shuttle will be the width of a finger when it leaves Discovery but will spread to the size of three football fields by the time it hits Earth. The round trip--320 miles from Discovery to Earth and back--will take just one-thousandth of a second.
NASA said the fluorescent green lasers may be visible from the ground and will pose no danger if viewed by the naked eye or with binoculars or small telescopes.
But amateur astronomers have been warned not to aim telescopes larger than six inches in diameter at the lasers because of the possibility of eye damage.
The shuttle’s crew of five men and one woman is also scheduled to drop off a $14-million satellite Tuesday and retrieve it two days later. The satellite has two telescopes that will focus on the sun’s corona, the outer part of the solar atmosphere.
Next Friday, astronauts Mark Lee and Carl Meade, both Air Force colonels, are scheduled to test a new jet pack by venturing out into space without a lifeline to the shuttle.
