As billows of smoke and steam roll away, space shuttle Discovery leaps from Launch Pad 39B on the historic return to flight mission STS-114.
This was the 114th space shuttle flight and the 31st for Discovery. On this mission to the International Space Station, the crew performed inspections on-orbit for the first time of all of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the leading edge of the wings and the thermal protection system tiles using the Canadian-built orbiter boom sensor system and the data from 176 impact and temperature sensors.
Image credit: NASA/HDNet
July 26, 2005