Safety worries mar shuttle's return to space

Discovery blasts into space from Kennedy Space Centre, while video footage (top picture) shows debris falling from the space shuttle. Picture / Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL - Nasa was last night reviewing video footage showing debris falling from Discovery, to see if the space shuttle suffered any damage on blastoff.

The debris did not appear to hit the shuttle during the smooth blastoff, marking a triumphant United States return to manned space travel after a long struggle to recover from Columbia's destruction over Texas.

Falling debris caused the fatal Columbia disaster 2 1/2 years ago.

Engineers hoped to know by Monday whether Discovery was damaged and whether the crew should attempt repairs, said flight operations manager John Shannon.

Astronauts will use a camera on a robot arm to examine the exterior.

As Discovery reached orbit, Commander Eileen Collins tipped the shuttle slightly so the crew could see the external tank as it was jettisoned.

The shuttle will open its cargo hold to deploy its robotic arm, from which the camera will examine Discovery's wings and nose.

Once it approaches the International Space Station today, Collins will turn the shuttle round so the station crew can take photographs of its underside to help determine whether Discovery's thermal protection tiles suffered any damage.

A chunk of foam from an external fuel tank hit Columbia's wing during liftoff on January 16, 2003, causing tile damage that tore the shuttle apart when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere 16 days later. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.

Nasa is inspecting images of Discovery's liftoff that appeared to show a piece of a tile and another unknown object falling off separately during the first two minutes of the ascent.

Minutes before the liftoff, orbiter test director Mark Taffet told the crew: "It's time for us to return to flight. Godspeed and we will see you in a couple of weeks."

Amid cheers and some tears from ground experts, Discovery lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in a thunderous blast of smoke and fire.

The agency said it was happy with the launch, despite the falling debris.

Nasa said its experts would meet today to study preliminary reports on "ascent debris events".

They stressed that it was not unusual for some material to come off shuttles as they roared into space.

John Shannon, Nasa flight operations manager, said the piece of tile was believed to be about 3.8cm in size and appeared to have come off the right landing gear on the nose.

The origin of the debris was unknown but it appeared to fall away without touching the shuttle as the booster rockets broke away.

"We are going frame by frame through the imagery," Shannon told a media briefing.

It was too early to say whether the shuttle was at risk, he said.

"I have to understand exactly what we have. We have to walk through the whole process methodically."

More than 100 cameras on the ground and two planes monitored Discovery's rise.

Its main mission on the 12-day space flight is to test new safety measures and heat shield repair techniques.

"We will know in two days everything that fell off the vehicle," Shannon said.

Nasa has spent more than US$1 billion ($1.48 billion) on safety upgrades since the Columbia accident, and worked to correct what investigators called a "broken safety culture" that was too dismissive of risk.

- REUTERS and AGENCIES