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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's most cosmopolitan expanse shuttle, Discovery, was oxyacetylene for an salutation liftoff weekday on its test travel after nearly threesome decades of service.

NASA ended pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of render into Discovery at midmorning, as the sextet astronauts assigned to the expanse send delivery assignment got primed at gathering quarters. It was their second stab at this. November's start endeavor never prefabricated it this far.

Launch director Mike Leinbach said everything eventually seemed to be reaching together. Even the defy was hunting up: the prognosticate reinforced to 90 percent "go" for the 4:50 p.m. liftoff.

"I conceive the weather's feat to be good," Leinbach said weekday morning. "It's a organisation so you never undergo until the test seconds on the measure if all pieces of the organisation are feat to behave. But correct now, it feels good."

This time, no hydrogen pedal seeped discover during fueling. NASA also was confident no cracks would amend in the right render tank. Both problems cropped up during the initial countdown in November, and the repairs took nearly four months. The cracks in the midsection of the tank, which holds instruments but no fuel, could hit been dangerous.

Discovery module head to the International Space Station with the crew, as substantially as a alluviation of supplies and a mechanism robot.

This module be the 39th grace for Discovery, ordered to embellish the prototypal of the threesome extant expanse shuttles to be old this assemblage and sent to a museum. It has since logged 143 meg miles since its prototypal grace in 1984.

NASA expects 40,000 guests on assistance for Discovery's going launch, including a diminutive force from Congress. Watching with primary interest from Mission Control in metropolis module be traveler Timothy Kopra, who was supposed to be the flight's lead spacewalker. He was perceive in a bicycle break terminal period and was replaced by Stephen Bowen, who module embellish the prototypal traveler to control back-to-back shuttle missions.

Well before dawn, nonprofessional vehicles already unsmooth nearby anchorage substance the best views of liftoff. Signs right businesses and polity offices in the neighboring towns of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach offered text of encouragement. "The heavens await Discovery," one faith proclaimed. Local mart stores equipped up on player red, white and chromatic cakes fancy with shuttle pictures.

Leinbach noted that it would be "tough" to wager Discovery soar one terminal time. "What module be most arduous module be on construction period when we undergo that that's the modify of her assignment completely," he said.

Discovery module spend 11 life in itinerary — on crowning of the 352 life it's already spent circling the planet — and module demolition up another 4.5 meg miles.

Its itemize of achievements include delivering the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit, carrying the prototypal Slavonic cosmonaut to start on a U.S. spaceship, returning Mercury traveler Evangelist spaceman to orbit, and transfer shuttle flights backwards to life after the Challenger and river accidents.

"She's been an amazing machine," Leinbach said Wednesday. "She's done everything we've asked of her."

Heading up Discovery's stager gathering is old Air Force Col. Steven Lindsey. Two of his gathering actually lived on the expanse send in 2009. During the 11-day flight, they module deliver and install a closet-like compartment flooded of expanse send supplies — prefabricated in Italy and named sculpturer for il Signor da Vinci.

Packed exclusive the compartment is Robonaut 2, or R2, ordered to embellish the prototypal mechanism mechanism in space. The empiric organisation — hunting human from the region up — module rest enclosed until after Discovery departs.

Up at the expanse station, meanwhile, the six-person gathering got primed to receive a dweller load board launched terminal week from land Guiana. It was cod to dock in late morning, and start officials were keeping abreast of the events evolution 220 miles up. A smooth system would country Discovery for launch.

NASA is low presidential content to retire the shuttle fast this summer, let private companies verify over trips to itinerary and focus on getting astronauts to asteroids and Mars. There's been goodish disagreement among lawmakers and the expanse accord on how best to accomplish this.

"Godspeed Discovery," old expanse shuttle program trainer Wayne Hale said in a Twitter update Thursday. "Prayers for a safe grace and good for selection makers."

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

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