MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) - NASA successfully launched the Discovery space shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center at 10:39 a.m. EDT Tuesday after numerous delays, marking the first successful space shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster two years ago, a Russian Space Agency official said. NASA went through with the launch despite the Discovery's faulty fuel sensor. The flight will last 11 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes. After docking with the International Space Station and putting the Italian Raffaello cargo carrier into operation, the shuttle's seven-member crew will leave the shuttle for three space walks.
Eileen Collins, a U.S. Air Force Colonel who has logged more than 537 hours in space, is heading the STS-114 mission. She has been a member of NASA's team since 1990 and was the commander of the Columbia space shuttle that later exploded during its launch. She is married and has two children and her hobbies include golf, travel and photography.
Aside from the American astronauts, the Discovery crew includes Japanese mission specialist Soichi Noguchi from the JAXA space agency.
