America Back in Space! : Shuttle Blasts Off 2 1/2 Years After Challenger Tragedy : NASA’s Long Paralysis Has Come to an End

The shuttle Discovery rocketed triumphantly into orbit today, returning Americans to space for the first time in 2 1/2 years and ending the last vestiges of the paralysis that gripped NASA after the Challenger disaster.

Millions of Americans held their breath as the ship’s twin booster rockets gushed geysers of fire and smoke, pushing Discovery past the fateful 73-second mark in the flight when Challenger erupted into a hellish fireball 32 months ago.

This time, the two 14-story rockets appeared to perform flawlessly, dropping away to a parachute descent into the sea as planned two minutes after blastoff. A NASA review of videotapes of the flight confirmed that they had fired normally.

It was the painstaking redesign of the booster rockets that kept the remaining three shuttles grounded for so long, stalling many space activities.

Discovery’s three main engines continued to fire, pushing veteran astronauts Frederick H. Hauck, 47; Richard O. Covey, 42; John M. (Mike) Lounge, 42; George D. (Pinky) Nelson, 38, and David C. Hilmers, 38, into space. A burst from the shuttle’s two orbital engines 40 minutes after launch deposited the ship into a safe orbit 184 miles high.

“It’s nice to be in orbit,” said Hauck, the ship’s commander and veteran of two previous shuttle flights.

On their first pass over the launch site from orbit, Hauck told Mission Control in Houston, “Just give our heartfelt thanks for all those folks down there who did all this good work.”

‘We’re Still Smiling’

“I’m sure they’re all happy to hear that,” replied astronaut John Creighton in the control center. “I know they spent a lot of long hours getting you ready, and we’re all really happy to see that it went off without a hitch. We’re wishing you good luck over the next four days.”

“Thanks, we’re still smiling,” Hauck said.

“We’re looking forward to the next four days and we think we’ve got a lot to do and we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it and we’ll be ready to come back with you all,” Covey said.

Discovery took off at 8:37 a.m. PDT, an hour and 38 minutes late. The delay was caused by unseasonably light upper-altitude winds. The shuttle’s flight computers were programmed to deal with stronger winds, and there was not enough time to change the programming.

However, engineers during the night reviewed analyses of wind effects on Discovery’s wings and decided that there was enough “margin” in the design and that it was safe to fly.

‘Good Luck ... Godspeed’

The final “go” was issued nine minutes before launch by a NASA management team headed by astronaut Robert L. Crippen. The panel was formed in the wake of the Challenger disaster to make sure that no problems were overlooked in the rush to launch.

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Crippen told the crew.

In Washington, President Reagan opened a White House ceremony to applause and cheers by announcing the good news from the Cape and declaring that “America is back in space.”

Discovery’s successful launching marked a watershed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was a clear moment in history separating the old NASA, the one that launched Challenger over the objections of engineers, from the new NASA, an agency rededicated to flight safety and the reality of the dangers of spaceflight.

“Wow! That was really something,” said NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher, after watching the thunderous blastoff from the launch control center 4 miles from the ocean-side launch pad.

“It’s been a long wait,” said Fletcher, who returned to NASA at Reagan’s request after the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion that killed the seven Challenger astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. “When it was time to go, we went. . . . This was the first of a new era.”

An example of the new NASA conservatism is the fact that Discovery is scheduled to land at 9:34 a.m. PDT Monday on the broad, dry lake bed runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s high desert, not the 3-mile-long Kennedy Space Center runway built to receive shuttles.