Shuttle Discovery Launches Successfully

Spinner

The Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launched this morning, marking the first launch since the Columbia disaster nearly 2 1/2 years ago which claimed the lives of its entire crew and set in motion mass overhauls of the shuttle's heat shields which failed upon re-entry due to damage sustained during takeoff. Since that time, nearly 50 major safety improvements had been made.

View: NASA TV
View: Mission STS-114 Highlights

"Our long wait may be over. So on behalf of the many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do, good luck, Godspeed — and have a little fun up there," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff.

Source: Yahoo

tcith

I would not say successfully - debris has fallen off - similiar to the debris that was dislodged that caused the Columbia tragedy.

NASA is examining footage of the Discovery launch showing chunks of debris - the cause of the 2003 Columbia tragedy - falling from the shuttle after lift-off.

Footage from some of the 100 cameras in place to monitor the launch show a large piece of debris falling from the side of the shuttle in the seconds after the spacecraft left the ground.
Eight minutes later the shuttle was safely in orbit, but more camera footage showed another sizeable piece of debris in motion after the spacecraft's main fuel tank was jettisoned from the orbiter.

NASA shuttle expert John Channon said the tile appeared to come off the right landing gear on the nose.


But Channon and other experts said it was too soon to know if there was any danger to the shuttle.

"We are going frame by frame through the imagery," Channon told the briefing.

"It is too early," Channon said when asked if there was a danger to the crew.

"I have to understand exactly what we have. We have to walk through the whole process methodically.

"We have not lost a tile, we may have lost a piece of a tile."

Australian-born astronaut Andy Thomas will now play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of his fellow crew when he goes on a spacewalk in the early days of the mission to assess any damage to the spacecraft.


Also noted during launch, a bird hit the nose cone of the rocket booster - it is not considered part of the damage or the source of falling debris

Nosferatu

Debris falls off on every single launch, but at least now they are aware it can be catastrophic to the shuttle and have tools in place to examine it.