NASA managers celebrated the success of the nation's first Fourth of July manned shuttle launch, saying they were not worried about a small piece of foam that broke off and hit the Discovery during its ascent.
"They don't get much better than this," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said of the launch.
Griffin chose to go ahead with the mission over concerns from the space agency's safety officer and chief engineer about foam problems that have dogged the agency since Columbia was doomed by a flyaway chunk of insulation three years ago.
The shuttle's astronauts planned to give the spacecraft a more thorough physical examination in space yesterday, the second day of their 12-day mission. They were to take images of the shuttle's wings and nose cap with a camera and laser attached to a 15m boom, which itself would be affixed to the shuttle's 15m robotic arm.
The Day 2 inspections were implemented after the Columbia disaster, in which foam from the shuttle's external tank struck the orbiter's wing, allowing fiery gases to enter the spacecraft during descent in 2003. All seven astronauts were killed.
Last year's Discovery crew was the first to try out the new inspection techniques, which can detect damage as small as 0.3cm. The current crew will only be the second to conduct such inspections.
"We can detect very, very small damage indeed," said Wayne Hale, shuttle program manager.
Shuttle managers said early video images of liftoff showing small pieces of foam breaking away -- and one striking the spacecraft -- were not troubling.
"The tank performed very, very well, indeed, very pleased as opposed to where we were last year," Hale said on Tuesday night, five hours after liftoff. "We saw nothing that gives us any kind of concern about the health of the crew or the vehicle."
In its flight last July, Discovery experienced dangerous foam loss, though the chunk was smaller than one that slammed into Columbia's left wing, and it missed Discovery altogether.
Discovery blasted off from its seaside pad on Tuesday at 2:38pm. About three minutes later, as many as five pieces of debris were seen flying off the tank.
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