CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Endeavour blasted off on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit Monday morning as the mission commander's wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
NASA is winding down its 30-year-old shuttle program before embarking on something new. The event generated the kind of excitement seldom seen on Florida's Space Coast on such a grand scale – despite a delay of more than two weeks from the original launch date because of an electrical problem.
Monday's countdown was close to perfect, and the shuttle quickly disappeared into thin, low clouds.
"That was four seconds of cool," said Manny Kariotakis, who was visiting from Montreal. The 50-year-old day care owner got goosebumps watching the liftoff with thousands along Highway 1 in Titusville.
Launch manager Mike Moses apologized for the fleeting glimpse. "The view wasn't the best," he said.
Just before launching, commander Mark Kelly thanked all the who put hands "on this incredible ship."
"It is in the DNA of our great country to reach for the stars and explore. We must not stop," he said.
Remarkably, Giffords made a return visit to see Kelly off. She is still undergoing rehabilitation in a Houston hospital to recover from a gunshot wound to the head in an assassination attempt little more than four months ago.
The Arizona congresswoman was shielded from the cameras on launch day, as were the families of the other five astronauts. All watched the liftoff in private.
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