… And That Includes Those in Outer Space

ASTRONAUTS Pam Melroy and Peggy Whitson are on course for an historic hook-up 355kilometres above Earth after the shuttle Discovery blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre last night.

Shuttle commander Melroy, 46, and international space station captain Whitson, 47, are the first women astronauts to take simultaneous command of separate missions in the 50-year history of manned spaceflight. They will mark the achievement with a handshake through a hatch when Discovery docks with the space station tomorrow, three days into its two-week, ten million-kilometre mission.

Yesterday’s blastoff came against the advice of some Nasa safety officials, who wanted a delay to investigate possible cracks in the shuttle’s heat-resistant skin.

But mission managers ruled Discovery safe for flight, and the spacecraft lifted off into clouds with seven astronauts aboard.

Commander Melroy described the launch as ‘cool’ as Discovery reached orbit, nine minutes into its flight.

Watching from the ground was Star Wars director George Lucas, at Cape Canaveral to witness the launch into space of Luke Skywalker’s original light sabre from his film Return of the Jedi.

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