KSC-95EC-1013 - STS-70 Discovery launch startling the birds 


  Startled birds scatter as the stillness of a summer morning is broken
by a giant's roar.  The Space Shuttle Discovery thundered into space 
from launch Pad 39-B at 9:41:55:078 a.m. EDT.  STS-70 is the 70th Shuttle
flight overall, the 21st for Discovery (OV-103), and the fourth Shuttle 
flight in 1995.  On board for the nearly eight-day mission are a crew of
five:  Commander Terence "Tom" Hendricks; Pilot Kevin R. Kregel; and 
Mission Specialists Nancy Jane Currie, Donald A. Thomas and Mary Ellen
Weber.  The crew's primary objective is to deploy the Tracking and 
Data Relay Satellite-G (TDRS-G), which will join a constellation of
other TDRS spacecraft already on orbit.

 
                                               7/13/95