The space
Reception
History
The Apollo program
The Ariane program
Birth of the universe
Apollo 11 seen by the press
Our solar system
Ice on the Moon ?
Smart-1
The crews on ISS
The sky on your computer

After a long period of studies, Discovery was placed on the launchstep on April 7, 2005. It was later removed to change the tank, and replaced on the launchstep on June 15, with the purpose to be launched on July 13. The back to front count has begun on July 10 but an instrument had a failure and the launching was canceled less than 2h30 before. Finally, it took place on July 26. This launching tested a new procedure of security : launching during the day, a lot of cameras, planes escorting the shuttle,...
The shuttle's mission, named STS-114, was to join the ISS. It transported seven persons :
Eileen Collins, commander (USA)
James Kelly, pilot (USA)
Stephen Robinson, mission's specialist (USA)
Soichi Noguchi, mission's specialist (Japan)
Andrew Thomas, mission's specialist (USA)
Wendy Lawrence, mission's specialist (USA)
Charles Camarda, mission's specialist (USA)

Discovery on a BoeingThe shuttle landed on August 9 in the Edwards Air Force Base (California) and was deplaced to its base (Kennedy Space Center) in Florida on the back of a Boeing (image on the left)

DiscoveryThe end of problems ? No. The same problem as the Columbia's flight happened (without vicitim, this time) : some pieces of insulating foam were detached from the tank. In this image, we can see a white mark on the right of the central pipe. It's a detached piece.

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