Discovery Lifts Off, Releases Satellite Involved in Study of Ozone Layer

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of six rocketed into orbit Thursday and dropped off a satellite that will spend the next week studying Earth’s ozone layer.

“Happy birthday; we’re about to light your candles,” a launch controller told pilot Kent Rominger moments before liftoff. Rominger turned 41 Thursday.

Astronaut Jan Davis gently released the boxy, shiny satellite as Discovery soared over the Pacific Ocean just south of Alaska. In doing so, she accomplished the main job of the crew’s 11-day science mission, which also features tests of a new robotic arm and observations of the Hale-Bopp comet.

The satellite is supposed to spend nine days flying free of Discovery, measuring atmospheric gases and temperatures. During that time, NASA and the German space agency will launch 66 small rockets and weather balloons as well as a research plane to examine the same piece of sky at the same moment as the 184-mile-high satellite.

Scientists say the findings will help them better understand ozone depletion.

Like Discovery, the German-built satellite will fly at unusually high latitudes, passing as far north as Alaska and as far south as South America’s Cape Horn. The crew will retrieve the satellite Aug. 16, two days before they are to return to Earth.