This story was updated at
7:16 p.m. EDT.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA officials lauded the July
4th launch of the space shuttle Discovery Tuesday but added that much work
remains ahead, not the least of which are evaluations of several pieces of foam
debris that popped loose from the orbiter's fuel tank.
A video camera mounted to
Discovery's external tank caught at least three, possibly four, pieces of
shuttle fuel tank foam falling away from its perch two minutes and 47 seconds
into the launch, NASA space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.
"It could be an ice
frost ramp, it could be something else," Hale said during a
post-launch press briefing here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), adding
another piece of foam was also seen almost five minutes into launch. "Both
of those are interesting because they are after the time we are concerned about
aerodynamic transport doing damage to shuttle tile."
Shuttle officials have
repeatedly said they expected to see some foam loss during Discovery's launch,
and are awaiting their first report from image analysts poring through today's
launch imagery. A press briefing on that report is expected to occur no earlier
than 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT), NASA said.
"I would not count this as
off nominal, this is kind of what we expected," said William Gerstenmaier,
NASA's associate administrator for space operations. "I think we've got
two awesome pieces of data here from an engineering standpoint."
Later comments between flight
controllers and Discovery's astronaut crew indicated that the second foam piece
may have struck the orbiter's mid-body between the nose landing gear and main
landing gear doors.
Hale stressed that the timing at
which the foam pieces fell from Discovery much later than when any large debris
could damage the orbiter's heat shield. That timing ranges from about 60 seconds
after liftoff on to about 135 seconds – or two minutes and 15 seconds
– into the flight.
Report
from space
Meanwhile, STS-121 mission
specialist Michael
Fossum – who along with crewmate Stephanie
Wilson conducted a photographic survey of Discovery's external
tank separation – reported seeing what appeared to be a piece of
cloth drifting between the shuttle and its discarded fuel tank.
"It seemed to be some type
of material at least four to five feet long, perhaps as much as six to
eight," Fossum said, who speculated that it could be part of a shuttle
thermal blanket system.
But after analyzing imagery
taken by Fossum, NASA analysts later determined the object was merely ice
drifting away from Discovery, NASA officials said.
Commanded by veteran astronaut Steven
Lindsey, Discovery's STS-121 mission is NASA's second shuttle flight since
the 2003 Columbia accident.
The mission will deliver vital supplies and a third crewmember to the
International Space Station, as well as test out maneuvers to use a shuttle
robotic arm extension as a work platform.
A good
launch
While analysis of Discovery's
ascent imagery continues, shuttle officials hailed today's July 4th launch as a
shot in the arm for NASA's shuttle program.
The spacecraft shot into the
bright blue holiday sky above Florida at 2:37:55 p.m. EDT (1837:55 GMT).
"It just blows me away,
tears were in my eyes as I watched it going," said deputy shuttle program
manager John Shannon. "This is kind of the starting gun for us...we have a
very aggressive flight in front of us."
NASA chief Michael Griffin
called Discovery's STS-121 successful "one of the better" days NASA
can have.
"In fact, they don't get
much better than this and we're pretty happy," Griffin said during the
post-launch briefing.
Mission managers are confident
that Discovery's power system does have enough liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen to support an extra mission day, which would allow STS-121
spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Fossum a third extravehicular activity during
their mission.
"It was just a beautiful
day to watch Discovery launch on July 4th and see it go for so far, and see
separation and see the boosters tumbling back to Earth, it was just a great
day," said Michael Leinbach, NASA launch director, after the space shot.
Despite Tuesday's holiday
launch, overtime pay is not in the cards for the STS-121 astronauts aboard
Discovery.
"They'll get time and a
half when we get time and a half," said Griffin with a smile. "I
wouldn't hold my breath."
NASA will hold a press
conference no earlier than 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) on NASA
TV. You are invited to follow Discovery's mission activities usingSPACE.com 'sNASA TV feed available by
clicking here.
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