Of the surly bonds of Earth, that is. After two long years and a billion-dollar overhaul, Discovery climbs up out of the well. The memory of Columbia remains fresh, yet work must continue; life must go on. An anxious yet flawless countdown for STS-114 led nonetheless to today's announcement that NASA was grounding the entire shuttle fleet again. This action follows several significant examples of material apparently falling off the external fuel tank during the ascent. A troubled mission gets one more headache tossed atop an already formidable pile.

Fortunately the material doesn't seem to have nicked Discovery. The astronauts used their boom-assisted inspection laser to survey the craft and reported no damage. (This can't also be true for the hapless bird that got struck only a few seconds after liftoff.) Once the inspections are complete, the shuttle will approach ISS for docking scheduled on Thursday. At that time comes another round of inspections, with powerful cameras set to film the craft as it approaches and strikes a "glamour" pose to be photographed by Station residents Krikalev and Phillips.

Once docked and pressurized the real work of construction begins. The shuttle brings some fifteen tons of supplies in her cargo bay, housed in the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Several spacewalks are planned, to attach an experiment platform and install a replacement Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) for the Station's navigation system. Then they'll load up with some of Alpha's clutter and, God willing, return to Earth to finish its thirty-first mission. Will it ever come back? No one can say.

Clearly the orbiter's days are numbered. It's a marvelous, still almost miraculous, tool, one that has sadly outlasted its usefulness (though it still gives impressive launches, despite the risks). It's a sensitive and unforgiving machine with needs that cannot be ignored (though one could argue that space itself is unforgiving). Better alternatives to supplying those needs will emerge.

And that's OK. Alpha and beyond are the ends; the orbiter is but one of the means. The shuttle fleet was what we needed to achieve our toehold on the threshold of space, but it won't be the last to feature an "Enterprise." New fleets will take up the task. We will get there. In its own way Trek is also free at last, free from the surly bonds of its two clueless custodians. The television market is also sensitive and unforgiving, with needs that cannot be ignored. That's OK too. Sooner or later, some steps have to be taken on their own.