Discovery takes off on 3rd launch

US space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew left the seaside Florida launch pad on Tuesday on a do-or-die mission at 2.38 pm EDT (1838 GMT). The launch was postponed twice over the weekend because of poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center.

A video camera placed on the shuttle's fuel tank provided a grand view of the shuttle as it went up drawing an arc over the Atlantic Ocean and emitting huge amount of flame and smoke before taking its place into orbit.

The Discovery astronauts reported seeing foam debris and what appeared to be an insulating blanket floating away.

Going by the 2003 Columbia experience, one has reasons to doubt if Discovery's fuel tank would damage it in case of impact. Though shuttle managers state Discovery would continue to shed debris, they assure that its pieces won't be big enough so as to destroy the shuttle.