This is the fourth launch before the end of the shuttle project. Eyes at NASA on President Obama's expected April 15 announcement in Florida on the future of the space program
The space shuttle Discovery was launched a few minutes ago (13:21 Israel time) to the International Space Station. The shuttle carries equipment for scientific experiments to the laboratories established on the station by America, Europe and Japan.
Watching it on TV, it seems that the launch went extremely smoothly without any problems, the camera installed since the return to flight after the Columbia disaster on the external fuel tank showed that the shuttle separated from the fuel tank smoothly and activated its engines to move away from the tank that was supposed to crash into the Indian Ocean.
One sentence was missing in the words of the NASA television announcer who described the launches in recent years: "another launch in a step towards returning to the moon and on to Mars." And meanwhile, NASA is waiting for what President Barack Obama will say, who is scheduled to arrive at a space conference in Florida on the 15th in April and announce there his plan regarding the future of NASA and the American space program. This after in February he announced Cancellation of the Constellation project.
There are three astronauts on board the shuttle, and a fourth astronaut who took off two days earlier in a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur in Kazakhstan will also be waiting for them at the space station. This will break a record that will stand Four women in space at the same time.
Note - Later in the day report on A serious malfunction in the shuttle's antenna which is the main axis of communication with the Earth, mainly video and data, and may also affect the connection to the space station.
