The Space Shuttle Discovery rises into the clear night sky to begin the 96th mission in the STS program and the third mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Liftoff occurred at 7:50 (EST), December 19, 1999 from Launch Pad 39B. Onboard were astronauts Curtis L. Brown, Jr., Scott J. Kelly, Steven L. Smith, C. Michael Foale, John M. Grunsfeld, Claude Nicollier and Jean-Francois Clervoy. Swtizerland's Nicollier and France's Clervoy represent the European Space Agency (ESA).

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Photo credit: © Space collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: administration, aeronautics, agency, america, american, begiining, center, discovery, exploration, explore, florida, futuristic, horizontal, kennedy, manned, national, science, shuttle, sky, space, spacecraft, states, technology, united, usa, woosh