D-Bone
Dec 11th '06, 11:47 AM
The launch of NASA's shuttle Discovery late Saturday appeared to be an exceptionally clean space shot, NASA mission managers said today.
"It all just came together perfectly,? NASA launch director Mike Leinbach said in a post-launch briefing. ?Once we got into the final count, we just executed. It was like a sim-run with no problems. It was outstanding."
Discovery lifted off at 8:47:35 p.m. EST (0147:35 Dec. 10 GMT) from Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), bound for the International Space Station (ISS) on a 12-day construction mission.
The successful space shot marked the third shuttle launch of this year and the first to take off in darkness since 2002. Of NASA?s 117 shuttle flights to date, only 29 have taken off at night.
"What you've seen today is the successful accomplishment of the most challenging, demanding, technically state of the art difficult thing that this nation or any nation can do," NASA chief Michael Griffin said.
Read More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/061209_sts116_postlaunch.html
"It all just came together perfectly,? NASA launch director Mike Leinbach said in a post-launch briefing. ?Once we got into the final count, we just executed. It was like a sim-run with no problems. It was outstanding."
Discovery lifted off at 8:47:35 p.m. EST (0147:35 Dec. 10 GMT) from Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), bound for the International Space Station (ISS) on a 12-day construction mission.
The successful space shot marked the third shuttle launch of this year and the first to take off in darkness since 2002. Of NASA?s 117 shuttle flights to date, only 29 have taken off at night.
"What you've seen today is the successful accomplishment of the most challenging, demanding, technically state of the art difficult thing that this nation or any nation can do," NASA chief Michael Griffin said.
Read More: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/061209_sts116_postlaunch.html