US Shuttle Columbia Lifts off with First Israeli Astronaut

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 17, 2003

US Shuttle Columbia Lifts off with First Israeli Astronaut

US space shuttle Columbia soared into the clear sky Thursday morning with its seven-member crew, which includes the first Israeli astronaut.

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US space shuttle Columbia soared into the clear sky Thursday morning with its seven-member crew, which includes the first Israeli astronaut.

The liftoff at 10:39 a.m. EST (1539 GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was surrounded by all-time high security as about 300 Israelis arrived to watch the flight of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli ever going into space.

Colonel Ramon, 48, an electronics and computer engineer and a former Israeli Air Force fighter pilot, was selected and began training at US space agency NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1998 as a payload specialist.

He was slated to go into space in July 2001, but a variety of technical and scheduling problems have postponed his mission.

Columbia's 16-day flight differs from most recent US shuttle missions in that it is devoted strictly to science and not to building or re-supplying the International Space Station.

With more than 90 experiments and investigations to be carried out onboard, Columbia's journey is the last dedicated science mission for NASA's shuttle program.

It is the first time in three years that NASA is launching a shuttle that is not going to the space station or working on the Hubble Space Telescope, the space agency said.

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