SPACE SHUTTLE

The space shuttle Discovery rises through the smoke after lifting off Friday afternoon Aug. 10, 2001 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch pad 39-A in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The shuttle is carrying seven astronauts and cosmonauts, three of whom will spend the next four months in space. NASA launched the spaceship five minutes earlier than planned because of thunderstorms moving in from the south. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)