Blastoff of Space Shuttle Lights Up Night Sky

The space shuttle Discovery streaked through a moonlit sky toward orbit early today, carrying five astronauts on an ozone survey mission.

The 4.5-million-pound shuttle rose from its seaside launch pad at 1:29 a.m. EDT on a pillar of flame, lighting up the sky for miles around. It was NASA’s second attempt to launch Discovery; the first ended abruptly moments before liftoff Tuesday.

Discovery shot out over the Atlantic Ocean and sped up the East Coast on its way into space. The sky was fairly clear over most of the Eastern Seaboard, offering observers a rare opportunity to glimpse an ascending shuttle. NASA has launched shuttles in darkness only eight times.

The spacecraft’s twin solid-rocket boosters fell away two minutes into the flight as planned, and the shuttle continued toward a 184-mile-high orbit on the thrust of its three main engines.

NASA officials said they were thrilled to get a shuttle up after back-to-back launch aborts.

“We hope we can get you a ride in something other than the astro-van for a change,” launch director Bob Sieck told shuttle commander Kenneth Cameron shortly before liftoff.

Computers automatically halted Discovery’s countdown 11 seconds before liftoff Tuesday because of an indication that a valve on a fuel vent had not closed. Engineers determined the valve did indeed shut and traced the problem to a bad computer circuit.

NASA resolved the problem through computer programming, Sieck said.

Sieck said launch controllers were no more tense than usual, despite two countdowns in two weeks that ended abruptly in the final seconds. The shuttle Columbia’s main engines shut down three seconds before liftoff on March 22 because of a stuck valve.

“You’ve got to have patience, and you’re going to have disappointment,” Sieck said.

Discovery’s eight-day flight is the first shuttle mission since January and the 54th since shuttles began flying in 1981. It also is the 16th trip for Discovery, NASA’s most traveled shuttle.

It is the second in a series of shuttle missions devoted to atmospheric research.