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In this story:

• Minor glitches delay launch
• 'A great day for America'
• 'PS2, loud and clear'
• A medical guinea pig
• Related stories and sites

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Seventy-seven-year-old John Glenn and six fellow astronauts roared off into a cloudless Florida sky aboard the shuttle Discovery Thursday, trailing three fiery plumes of exhaust as they began the most celebrated space mission in many years.

"Let the wings of Discovery lift us into the future," said launch control in its final words to the crew before launch.

"Liftoff for six American heroes and one American legend," added launch commentator Lisa Malone.

Discovery lifted off at 2:19 p.m., 19 minutes late. The countdown continued flawlessly until about 10 minutes before the scheduled launch, when an alarm sounded inside Discovery's cockpit. Shortly after the count resumed, it had to be held again when a plane intruded into the restricted area.

Glenn in the "white room" about two hours before liftoff

Shortly before launch time, NASA played a greeting from Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts and Glenn's backup when he became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962.

"Good luck, have a safe flight, and ... once again, Godspeed, John Glenn," said Carpenter, his voice quivering slightly as he repeated his famous benediction for Glenn's first flight.

The launch, the 123rd in the U.S. space program, makes Glenn the oldest person to go into space and marks his much-anticipated return to space 36 years after his first flight made him an American hero.

The crew has 83 experiments to perform on its 8 day, 20-hour mission 345 miles above the Earth. They include launching and recapturing a satellite and testing new hardware for the Hubble Space Telescope, but the presence of Glenn, a hero, a U.S. senator and a senior citizen as well, clearly was the focus of media and public attention.

	COUNTDOWN: Mission News CNN Video Archive Panoramic Photos Tour Mission Control FLASHBACK: Whither the Mecury 7? Shuttle Milestones Gallery: Then and Now LAUNCHPAD: Message Boards Space Chat Glenn-Gram e-mail GAMES: Match the Mission Mission Quiz Crossword Puzzle Crew members Brown Duque Glenn Lindsey Mukai Parazynski Robinson

Up to a quarter of a million people jammed central Florida's highways to witness the launch, although only 7,000 got close enough to see the Discovery on the launch pad.

Also attending were President Clinton, entertainers Jimmy Buffett and Garth Brooks, and thousands of representatives from the media.

"It's a great day for America and a great day for our senior citizens," Clinton said as he arrived at the Cape to view the launch. ( 287 K/26 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

So intense was the interest in the launch that NASA took the unusual precaution of arming its security guards with semi-automatic weapons.

In nearby Titusville, the public works department ran out of barricades and portable toilets. "We've asked several surrounding counties for help," Public Works director Jim Herron said.

Veteran observers said the launch frenzy rivaled that of missions to the moon and far exceeded most recent shuttle flights.

Glenn and the other astronauts -- Cmdr. Curtis Brown, pilot Steven W. Lindsey, flight engineer Stephen K. Robinson, mission specialists Scott E. Parazynski and Pedro Duque, and payload specialist Chiaki Mukai -- grinned broadly at the technicians as they arrived at the launch pad.

President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton watch the launch

Dressed in baggy orange space suits and white caps, they crawled through the hatch into the shuttle where technicians carefully strapped them into their launch couches.

Glenn grasped a handhold and powerfully pulled himself into his position on the lower deck with two others. Twice when instructed, he pulled his body upward so a parachute on his back could be adjusted.

During a routine communications check from Mission Control in Houston, Glenn replied vigorously, "PS2, loud and clear," at his turn. PS2 stands for payload specialist 2, his rank on the mission.

Glenn first captured national attention on February 20, 1962, by orbiting the Earth three times in a one-man Mercury capsule he called Friendship 7. The accomplishment prompted ticker tape parades, a speech before Congress and a visit to the White House.

Aerial view of spectators on the beach in Titusville, Florida

But he was denied a chance to return to space -- President John F. Kennedy deemed him too important to the space program to risk losing in space -- and eventually Glenn turned to politics. He is completing his fourth and final term as a U.S. senator from Ohio.

Glenn's return to space results from a combination of political clout, persistence, good health and his heroic reputation.

He forcefully lobbied NASA for months to put him on a space shuttle crew to study the effects of aging in space, providing information that he said would be valuable to astronauts and the elderly on Earth alike.

He will serve as a medical guinea pig in 10 experiments measuring the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Doctors examining Glenn said he had the body, strength and stamina of a much younger man.

The astronauts were awakened Thursday at 8:30 a.m. and quickly sat down to a traditional pre-launch breakfast of steak and eggs.

A silent television scene showed them seated at a table, wearing matching dark blue shirts and smiling and gesturing. In the center of the table was a cake frosted with the colorful crew patch that identifies their mission, a pre-launch ritual.

They are due to return to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral at 11:50 a.m. Saturday, November 7.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.