Shuttle Launch On Independence Day 2006

NASA says the shuttle launch is a success.

The Space Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts have blasted into orbit on NASA's first launch in a year. The lift-off went ahead despite objections from some within NASA who argued for more fuel tank repairs. Discovery finally cleared the tower after two weather delays and last-minute problems with the insulation foam.

Problems with fuel tank insulation were what doomed the shuttle Columbia and her crew in 2003. A piece of foam the same size as a slice of bread could be seen falling off Discovery during the launch. But experts said it was too small to pose a safety risk.

Discovery is aiming to link up with the International Space Station. But commentators say if anything goes wrong with the mission, it could mean the end of the Shuttle programme, and George W. Bush's plans for further exploration of the Moon and Mars could be in jeopardy.

The modified fuel tank went well, apparently.

"I think the tank performed very, very well indeed," said Wayne Hale, NASA’s space shuttle manager during an evening press briefing here at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). "We saw nothing that gives us any kind of concern about the health of the crew of the vehicle."

Hale’s comments came after a quick first-look at imagery of Discovery’s launch, arrival in orbit and the jettison of its external tank after the spacecraft and its seven-astronaut STS-121 crew launched into space on July 4 at 2:37:55 p.m. EDT (1837:55 GMT).

During that cursory look at a veritable flood of images, video and radar data, shuttle analysts found seven instances – of which five are related to fuel tank foam debris – of objects falling from Discovery’s launch stack.

"We put the tank under a microscope this time," Hale said. "It did not perform flawlessly, in that we lost some foam off the tank apparently."

Although the Telegraph in the UK is reporting this:

America's accident-prone space programme hit more trouble yesterday when the shuttle Discovery shed several chunks of foam insulation shortly after take-off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Nasa said a number of pieces fell from the external fuel tank during the launch but insisted that by then the shuttle and its crew of seven were beyond the point in its flight where the debris could pose a hazard.

"This isn't too abnormal," said Bill Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for spaceflight. "We fully expected to lose some foam."

Engineers maintained that the flyaway debris was expected to be small and any damage it may have caused would have no extreme consequence to the shuttle at the most dangerous point in its flight, its re-entry to Earth's atmosphere in 11 days.

The flight was delayed twice because of bad weather and there were further last-minute jitters over a chunk of insulation foam that fell from the fuel tank in the build-up to take-off, leaving a 4 in scar at the top of the tank.

After the broken chunk was discovered, Nasa's top engineer and chief of safety wanted to postpone Discovery's launch until the damage had been fixed.

Make of that what you will, but let's hope the whole thing keeps going well, safely.