Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven astronauts are headed to space, beginning a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. Discovery’s two solid rocket boosters ignited right on schedule at 6:21 a.m. EDT, sending the shuttle soaring past the launch tower at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The boosters will burn out about two minutes into the climb, as Discovery’s three main engines finish the job of delivering it to orbit and the external fuel tank falls away. Main engine cutoff will come at about eight and a half minutes into the flight.
The post-launch news conference will begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT and will be carried live on NASA TV and on the Web at www.nasa.gov/ntv.