In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the second try works like a charm as the Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from Launch Pad 39B on Mission STS-56 at 1:29:00 a.m., EDT, Apr. 8, 1993. The first attempt to launch Discovery on its 16th space voyage was halted at T-11 seconds on April 6.
Aboard for the second Space Shuttle mission of 1993 are a crew of five and the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science 2 (ATLAS 2), the second in a series of missions to study the sun's energy output and Earth's middle atmosphere chemical makeup, and how these factors affect levels of ozone.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).