BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. -- With a deep, ripping roar that shook the ground 3 miles away, space shuttle Discovery lanced through a billowing cloud of smoke Thursday as the world watched John Glenn's return to orbit.
The liftoff, delayed about 19 minutes, occurred in perfect weather as thousands of witnesses and millions of television viewers looked on. They saw Discovery arc over the Atlantic like a curving white spear racing through a crystal blue sky toward an orbit 340 miles above the planet.
The final words from NASA Launch Director Ralph Roe were not as memorable as the 1962 message "Godspeed, John Glenn." Instead, he said: "The launch team is go. The vehicle is ready. The weather is beautiful. On behalf of the Kennedy Space Center, have a great mission."
The mission was delayed twice just before launch. It also lost what appears to be the drag chute door during takeoff.
The first delay was at T-minus 9 minutes, when computers detected slightly low pressure in the crew cabin. NASA officials investigated, then decided it was not a problem. Then at T-minus 5 minutes, NASA had to send a search-and-rescue helicopter to chase away a small airplane that violated restricted air space near the launch site.
Then, in an apparently minor echo of Mr. Glenn's heat shield problems in 1962, a small white panel fell off and hit the nozzle of shuttle main engine No. 1 about two seconds after ignition. The panel apparently was the door to the shuttle's drag chute, NASA officials said. It caused no problems during takeoff, but questions remain about whether the missing door will affect the Nov. 7 landing.
The minor glitches did nothing to dampen the thrill of the day. President Clinton, who attended the launch with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, told CNN: "It's an important day for the space program. But it's a great day for America, a great day for our senior citizens, and I hope that all Americans share the exuberance that I feel today."
"What an event!" said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, one of several other political figures who traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch. "It's a historic moment for this country and for Ohio."
Jake Garn, a former U.S. senator from Utah and a 1985 shuttle astronaut, said he was thrilled and a bit jealous to see his old friend back in space.
"I still dream about (space flight) a couple times a week, and it's been 13 years since I flew," Mr. Garn said. "My advice to John . . . sit back and enjoy the view."
Thursday's blast-off was the start of a nine-day mission. Mr. Glenn is serving as a payload specialist, the lowest-ranking crew member. He will spend most of his time in Spacehab, running many of the 83 experiments carried on this mission. He also will take pictures, assist Cmdr. Curtis Brown with his spacesuit and handle other space chores.
In addition, Mr. Glenn will be a human guinea pig for a series of sleep, balance, bone and muscle loss experiments designed to look for links between the effects of spaceflight and aging.
The crew, meanwhile, will deploy and retrieve a satellite to study the sun, run several ultraviolet astronomy experiments, deploy a military communications satellite and test equipment destined for a future Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.
The 83 experiments aboard Discovery range from seed growth experiments to learn to make food for long-term spaceflights, to testing oyster toadfish for factors linked to space sickness. Protein crystal growth experiments will be used in cancer research. So will a micro-encapsulation experiment.
The first day in space, the crew changed into more comfortable clothes, then transformed the launch vehicle into an orbiting laboratory. After activating all the payloads, they were scheduled to sleep at 1 a.m.
Today, the crew will wake up at 9 a.m., deploy the PANSAT military satellite, begin work in the Spacehab laboratory and start other projects.
NASA estimated Thursday's launch was attended by 3,000 reporters and photographers. The crowd dwarfed the 379 media members who covered Mr. Glenn's Mercury flight in 1962, the 2,700 who watched Apollo 11 head for the moon in 1969, the 2,707 who covered the first shuttle launch in 1981 and the 2,330 who covered the first shuttle launch (in 1988) after the 1986 Challenger disaster.
"The only thing I've ever seen like this is a national political convention," said State Sen. Richard Finan, R-Evendale.
Said Gov. George Voinovich, who is running to replace Mr. Glenn as he retires from the Senate: "This is way beyond anything I contemplated would be occurring here. This is an important occasion for Ohio. Our national hero is going back into space. But I never dreamed it would draw the attention it has internationally."
Among the luminaries attending the launch: baseball Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams and Hollywood entertainers Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Ron Howard. Musician Jimmy Buffett was there too, on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine.
Cincinnati lawyer Stanley M. Chesley, who attended the launch at the invitation of Mr. Glenn, said Thursday was "one of the greatest days for America."
"We should all be proud," Mr. Chesley said after the liftoff. "It's something that we need to think about and understand that we are a great nation."
As for the future of the space program, Mr. DeWine and Mr. Voinovich said they expect to continue supporting NASA, including the expensive and sometimes controversial International Space Station.
"I don't think people realize the enormous economic benefit we get from the space program," Mr. Voinovich said. "GE Aircraft Engines builds some of the best engines in the world. But without NASA (which regularly works with GE), we'd be way behind the competition."
Said Mr. DeWine: "What this flight does is get people focused again on the space program. Now you'll see more debate about which way the program should go . . . more public debate, not just the people on finance committees."
• Lost panel no big deal
• New Concord tense, joyous
• Schools want to build on day's momentum
• Tristate couple relive '62 with kids
• 250,000 at launch party
• Awestruck Clinton salutes "genuine American hero'
• Glenn's first words
• Launch highly defined on TV of future
• Questions and answers
• Discovery Notebook
• Back to Glenn Page
