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This news was updated at 8:59 p.m. ET.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In a impressive and at nowadays nail-biting afternoon launch, the expanse shuttle Discovery blasted soured on digit test assignment today (Feb. 24) to cap soured its fruitful 27 years of spaceflight.

Amid country skies and hearty temperatures, Discovery lifted soured at 4:53 p.m. EST (2153 GMT) today from Launch Pad 39A here at NASA's President Space Center. [Photos: Space Shuttle Discovery Sets Sail on Final Voyage ]

The start came as a comfort after a last-minute glitch arose in a range-safety computer, threatening to preclude the liftoff. NASA cannot start a shuttle unless the air expanse over Cape Canaveral is unwooded by range country officials. The issue was resolute within transactions of the launch, allowing Discovery to control after all.

"It was category of an elating terminal some transactions of this countdown. Several of us have been around for many, some countdowns, and this was digit for the achievement books," said Mike Leinbach, NASA's shuttle start director. "We were a couple seconds away from losing the window."

Majesty and power

"For those watching, intend ready to attestator the majesty and the noesis of the shuttle Discovery as she lifts soured digit more time," the mission's man Steve Lindsey said from the gathering cabin transactions before launch.

NASA estimated that achievement crowds watched the orbiter's terminal liftoff from Florida's Space Coast. Some reports place the sort of onlookers at 40,000.

The flourishing start marks the beginning of Discovery's STS-133 assignment – its 39th and test grace to the International Space Station before it is old from service. The liftoff came after months of delay over problems with the shuttle's fuel tank. NASA also had to face an crisis repair today to mend a nicked modify armour tile near Discovery's gathering hatch.

But everything ended up going soured without a hitch.

"This is a pretty large period in voyage for us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's expanse dealings chief.

A some transactions into the launch, a piece of sparkle appeared to detach from the shuttle's outside tank. Gersteinmaier said that careless psychotherapy showed that there was some sparkle loss during ascent, but that it occurred substantially after the instance when such an event could earnestly alteration the shuttle.

"They're every after the aerodynamic sensitive times, so they're not a concern to us," Gerstenmaier said. "There's digit that's pretty noticeable around 3 transactions and 51 seconds - it's probably a piece of sparkle most 8 by 10 inches that comes off, but that's substantially after the Atlantic of concern from an impact-to-the-orbiter standpoint."

Discovery's mission

The shuttle's 11-day assignment module deliver essential supplies and critical hardware to the expanse station, including a much-needed storage power that module be attached to the Earth-facing lateral of the dweller Unity node. Discovery is also carrying what module become the expanse station's prototypal permanent robotic resident — the humanoid Robonaut 2.

Discovery module dock at the expanse station on Saturday (Feb. 26).

"STS-133 gathering and Discovery, recognize to space! We meet doubled the sort of extraterrestrial humans!" wrote Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli on Twitter, from his sit on the International Space Station. Nespoli is digit of sextet long-term crewmembers experience at the orbital settlement right now.

 

NASA's sumpter expanse shuttle

Discovery is NASA's oldest and most-flown expanse shuttle. It was prototypal launched in August 1984, and has since traveled more than 142 million miles and carried 246 crewmembers into space, NASA officials said.

The stager shuttle's terminal gathering is made up of man Steve Lindsey, airman Eric Boe, and assignment specialists Michael Barratt, Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen and Nicole Stott.

"Thanks for every your category text for me & the full STS133 crew. Will essay to tweet from space. Go Discovery!" Stott wrote on Twitter preceding to launch.

Mission doc Bowen was a last-minute substitute for astronaut Tim Kopra, who was scraped in a bicycle happening in January. In addition to the accepted duties as a assignment specialist, Bowen module also take Kopra's place on two designed spacewalks to perform turn station maintenance.

In expanse at last

The STS-133 assignment was suspended several months cod to issues with the expanse shuttle's outside fuel tank. NASA's initial endeavor to start Discovery on Nov. 5 was eventually scrapped, and the authority postponed the grace as engineers worked to refer the root drive of the cell problems. [Gallery: Building Space Shuttle Discovery]

Discovery's start this afternoon came on what was a laboring period for the International Space Station. Less than sextet hours before Discovery lifted off, an pilotless dweller cargo ship, the Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle 2 (ATV-2), arrived and cropped to the orbiting outpost.

During Discovery's mission, NASA and the expanse station's planetary partners module end whether to initiate a unequalled picture opportunity. NASA officials discussed having the Slavonic Soyuz capsulise undock from the station and control around it to snap a photograph of Discovery and the other satellite cropped to the completed laboratory.

Much remains to be finished over the incoming hebdomad and a half, but the Discovery team module flavor today's success — at small for a lowercase while.

"This was Discovery's last, enthusiastic artefact to go out," Leinbach said. "She gave us a lowercase bit of a fit today, but it's a enthusiastic artefact to intend Steve Lindsey and his gathering on orbit. I'm very, rattling chesty of my start team and every the rest of the people that work so hornlike on Discovery and the support systems around the country."

You crapper study SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow onTwitter @denisechow as she covers Discovery's test expanse voyage from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Visit SPACE.com for rank news of Discovery's test assignment STS-133.

• Photos: Space Shuttle Discovery Sets Sail on Final Voyage
• Video: Discovery's Final Blast Into Space
• Space Shuttle Discovery By-the-Numbers: Nearly 27 Years as NASA's Space Workhorse

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