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The first attempt to launch Discovery was early Tuesday morning. Increment weather around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida caused NASA to have to scrub the mission. The second attempt was early Wednesday morning. Weather would not be the issue this time. A problem with a fill and drain valve was the reason behind this launch attempt failure.
On Thursday it was decided to delay the next possible launch attempt from early Friday morning to almost midnight Friday night. NASA wanted to have more time to study the valve issue to make sure there would be no issues with it during the lift off.
On Friday, NASA was positive the valve problem was resolved and the preparations for the launch later that night proceeded. The only concern during the day was the weather. For most of the day there was only a 60% chance of favorable weather at the scheduled time for lift off.
At 2:45 pm crews began filling the big orange external tank with 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are the propellants to lift Discovery up into orbit. While it takes three hours to fill the tank; it only takes 8 1/2 minutes for the 500,000 gallons to be used up.
Around 7:30 pm the seven member crew of Discovery began suiting up in their orange flight suits. About an hour later they were getting into their assigned seat aboard the shuttle and were being strapped in. At 10 pm the hatch to Discovery was closed and secured for the flight into orbit.
Just before 11 pm, good news was received when the Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters gave a report that the weather was improving and that there was now an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions at the launch time. In about an hour the shuttle and its crew was scheduled to lift off into outer space.
Then at 11:47 the crew and the world heard the words they had been waiting for since early Tuesday morning; "go for launch." The countdown then entered into the final phase in final preparations for lift off. No technical issues and no problem with the weather were stopping this lift off.
"We have a go for main engines start" was given by NASA and at 11:59 pm the engines of Discovery roared to life and lifted the shuttle up in a beautiful display against the night sky. The lift off was virtually a flawless launch. The only issue that noted by the Flight Control Team was a failure of one of two small steering jets near the nose of the orbiter. The steering jet problem will have no impact on the mission.
No evidence was noticed during the launch of any foam falling off the external fuel tank. After 6 pm on Saturday, the shuttle crew will begin inspection of Discovery for any damage.
The Discovery's 13 day mission is the fourth shuttle mission so far this year. Discovery is carrying supplies for the space station as well as equipment and science racks. Discovery crew member Nicole Stott will also be staying on the space station for three months replacing Tim Kopra who will return to Earth on Discovery.
When Discovery lifted off of launch pad 39A for its 13 day trip to space, it took up a crew of seven and carried not only supplies and equipment. It also took up the dreams of not only the seven crew members, but the dreams of many kids of all ages that is amazed every night when they look up at the stars.
After the space shuttle Discovery launched into orbit, crew member Jose Hernandez tweeted his first twitter status update from space. "Settling in and realizing my dream…Micro G is great. Finished setting up the computers and ready for bed! Don’t need pillow!"
Posted August 29th, 2009 by Denise Clay
