With President Clinton and numerous senators in attendance, the space shuttle Discovery today successfully lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, with retiring Sen. John Glenn, D- Ohio, aboard.
Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, returned to space nearly 37 years after his first trip on Feb. 20, 1962.
In contrast to Glenn's first flight, which orbited the earth three times and took less than five hours, this mission will last nine days.
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