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STS-119 Finally Launches Into Space

Posted by kdawson on from the third-time's-the-charm dept.

Iddo Genuth writes "After several delays, including twice over the past week, the space shuttle Discovery has finally been launched into space. The spacecraft took off at precisely 7:43 p.m. EDT, embarking on the STS-119 mission, which will provide the International Space Station with the fourth and final set of solar arrays — and which will make the ISS brighter than Venus. The shuttle will also deliver to the ISS its newest crew member, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will replace flight engineer Sandra Magnus at the station."

4 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Full Power for Full Science by stox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I really liked that line.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  2. Re:Good Luck Boys by dwhitaker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Getting old? Shuttles are old - the Discovery alone is 25 years old and the Enterprise first flew in 1977. Hopefully the next generation of spacecraft will be able to last as long (or longer) in a very reliable fashion.

    --
    Douglas Whitaker
  3. Re:Good Luck Boys by spacefiddle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At this point i'm hoping there will be a "next generation of spacecraft" in my lifetime.

    where's that... one sec:

    I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never thought I'd see the last.
    Dr. Jerry Eugene Pournelle

    --
    That which does not kill us makes us... st
  4. Re:Great Job NASA @ crew. by deglr6328 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    gosh I don't know, maybe NASA's slightly more interested in getting plain facts out instead of hyping every latest piece of new information to maximum sensationalistic mediagasm proportions?

    --
    - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"