The US' manned space program roared back to life with the launch of Discovery, and engineers immediately began analyzing video of falling debris in hopes of ruling out a problem like the one that doomed Columbia two-and-a-half years ago.
National pride and the future of space exploration itself hung in the balance as Discovery and its crew of seven rose from the launch pad at 10:39am on Tuesday into a hazy blue sky and headed out over the ocean in the most scrutinized launch in NASA history -- and the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster.
The scrutiny didn't end once the shuttle reached orbit.
Astronauts awoke for their first full day of work in space yesterday with plans to inspect the shuttle's wings and nose for damage using a camera attached to the spacecraft's arm. The carefully orchestrated maneuvers were expected to take about seven hours.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin urged everyone "to take note of what you saw here today: the power and the majesty of the launch, of course, but also the competence and the professionalism, the sheer gall, the pluckiness, the grittiness of this team that pulled this program out of the depths of despair two-and-a-half years ago and made it fly."
Nevertheless, Griffin and other NASA officials said they will not celebrate until Discovery comes home safely. Columbia, after all, seemed to be home free until it fell to pieces on its return to Earth.
Two chase planes and more than 100 cameras documented Discovery's ascent from every possible angle to capture any sign of flying debris, and hours after the shuttle had settled into orbit, NASA officials said an object that may have been a 3.8cm piece of thermal tile appeared to break off from the craft's belly during liftoff. It came off from around a particularly vulnerable spot, near the doors to the compartment containing the nose landing gear.
Also, a large object -- perhaps a piece of foam insulation -- seemed to fly off from the giant external fuel tank but did not hit the shuttle itself, NASA flight operations manager John Shannon said.
"The big question is, what is that?" Shannon said.
He said it was too early to say whether the two incidents posed any danger to the shuttle. Among other things, it is not yet known how deep the gouge in the tile is.
Shannon said the cameras have provided the space agency with more detailed images than it has ever seen before, and it was not clear whether the debris represented anything out of the ordinary. The tiles on NASA's shuttle fleet have also sustained thousands of minor impacts over the years.
Shannon disclosed that the nose cone of the fuel tank hit a bird just seconds after liftoff.
NASA promptly told Discovery commander Eileen Collins of the debris sightings and said the agency's image-analysis experts were looking at the pictures frame by frame and were to have more information yesterday morning.
In addition, the astronauts were to use a new 15m boom to inspect their ship yesterday, and the crew of the international space station will photograph all sides of Discovery before today's linkup between the two.
Space-program employees and relatives of both the Discovery and Columbia crews looked on nervously as the shuttle lifted off.
Across the country, Americans watched the liftoff, cheering and applauding in New York's Times Square as the Discovery roared away. In the hometown of Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, the pop of firecrackers and congratulatory cheers of "Banzai!" rang out.
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