NASA to retire shuttle fleet after two more flights * Discovery hauling cargo to International Space Station * Launch nearly canceled by range safety computer glitch (Updates with details on foam loss, quotes) By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space shuttle Discovery blasted off for the last time Thursday, carrying six astronauts and carting a load of supplies, spare parts and a robot for the International Space Station. The shuttle lifted off at 4:53 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center, riding a flame-tipped pillar of smoke across the Atlantic Ocean as it soared through partly cloudy skies toward space. The launch was delayed three minutes due to a glitch with a range safety computer minutes before the scheduled 4:50 p.m. EST liftoff. The problem was resolved with seconds to spare.
Read more ``This was one for the record books,'' said launch director Mike Leinbach. Discovery's fuel tank shed at least four pieces of insulating foam during the climb to orbit, but none posed a threat to the ship, NASA said. The agency has been concerned about foam debris since the disintegration of shuttle Columbia upon re-entry in 2003 due to damage from a piece of falling insulation during liftoff. Discovery's launch was the 133rd in the 30-year-old shuttle program, with up to two flights remaining before the United States retires its three-ship fleet later this year. Discovery made 39 of those flights, including both return-to-flight missions following the fatal Challenger and Columbia accidents, and delivering the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. ``I think what will be most difficult will be on landing day when we know that that's the end of her mission, completely,'' Leinbach said. The shuttles are being retired due to high operational costs and to free up money to develop new vehicles capable of traveling beyond the space station's orbit. HUMANOID ROBOT Discovery is carrying a storage room, an external platform for spare parts and a prototype humanoid robot for the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 220 miles above the Earth. The mission had been on hold since November to fix problems with the shuttle's fuel tank. Engineers repaired and reinforced thin metal support beams inside the tank, several of which had cracked when the ship was fueled for a launch attempt on Nov. 5 and during a follow-up tanking test in December. Similar modifications are planned for the fuel tanks being prepared for the final shuttle flights. Shuttle Endeavour is set to launch April 19 with the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector. NASA also wants to fly the shuttle Atlantis this summer with a year's worth of supplies to tide over the space station until commercial resupply vehicles are operational. NASA eventually wants to turn over station crew taxi flights, now handled by Russia at a cost of $51 million a seat, to private companies if they can develop and operate space taxis. NASA had planned to follow the shuttle program with a new moon exploration initiative, but that has been canceled in favor of developing more flexible spacecraft that can reach asteroids, Mars and other destinations. All plans, however, are on hold, pending budget allocations from Congress. The delay launching Discovery cost the crew its lead spacewalker, Tim Kopra, who was injured in a bicycle accident in January. He was replaced by Stephen Bowen, who last flew in May. With Bowen aboard the shuttle are commander Steven Lindsey, the former chief astronaut, pilot Eric Boe and astronauts Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott. The crew is scheduled to arrive at the station Saturday for a week-long stay. (Editing by Kevin Gray and Philip Barbara)
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