Cape Canaveral, Fla. – Flashes of flame from space shuttle Discovery lit up the darkened sky Saturday as the spacecraft blazed off the launchpad in the first nighttime liftoff in four years.
The shuttle’s seven astronauts are on a mission to rewire the international space station, one leg of a three-year race to finish construction on the orbiting outpost before shuttles are retired in 2010.
Clouds with blustery winds earlier gave way to clear skies and a gentle breeze at launch time at Kennedy Space Center.
Low clouds forced the space agency to scrub an attempt Thursday night during a countdown that ran down to the wire. Managers decided not to try again Friday because the forecast looked even worse.
During their 12-day mission, Discovery’s crew members will rewire the space station, deliver an $11 million addition to the space lab and bring home one of the space station’s three crew members, German astronaut Thomas Reiter. American astronaut Sunita Williams will replace him, staying for six months.
Waiting at the space station for his visitors to arrive Monday, U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria told Mission Control: “We’re going to head out and turn our porch light on so they can find us.”
NASA officials were glad to get the shuttle off the ground since they wanted it back on Earth by the new year.
Shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. The space agency has figured out a solution for the New Year’s Day problem, but managers are reluctant to try it.
The launch was the first at night since Endeavour’s flight in November 2002 and the 29th in darkness of NASA’s 117 total shuttle launches.
NASA required daylight launches for three flights after the Columbia accident in 2003 so clear images could be taken of the external fuel tank. Foam broke off the tank and struck Columbia’s wing at liftoff, leading to the disaster that killed seven astronauts.
