Shuttle's Independence Day lift-off

Scotsman.com News - International - Shuttle's Independence Day lift-off:
"The agency's first 4 July launch in 45 years of manned spaceflight provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing controversy over the safety of the foam insulation on the shuttle's fuel tank and the frustration of two consecutive aborted lift-offs due to poor weather at the Kennedy Space Centre."

I am always a nervous wreck over the Shuttle shuffle. I can't bear it sometimes and I don't really see the lift off as a distraction to things falling off it! They can examine it while they are up there and they have some pretty sensitive equipment they can use. Things which drop off and crack are a big worry to me and it doesn't bear thinking about soemtimes. I know space exploration has to be pioneered . I know we'll look back like we have on planes and wonder how on earth we managed and did it and I know that do it we sall. NASA is pioneering all this stuff and they have to take riska. I don't like it when they don't agree but I guess they are not stupid and they give it their best intellectual thought and cogistation. It is always going to be a calculated risk and the ISS people are counting on them. Pioneering is not easy! I am glad it all went well on Independence Day because it was a great thing to happen on their national day. NASA is so much a part of the positive American spirit of conquering new frontiers.