discovery s mission began nearly 30 years ago. reporter: the discovery s crew of six said a final prayer before boarding as record crowds lined the beaches and causeways of florida to witness discovery s final launch. the final lift-off of discovery. reporter: over three decades of space flight discovery has logged more than 140 million miles and spent 352 days in orbit. lift-off of space shuttle discovery. reporter: it s the most traveled spacecraft in history, beaming back spectacular imagery from the final frontier. i m always struck by that. it s beautiful, powerful. it s almost overwhelming, is the way it feels to me. reporter: when eileen collins became the first woman to pilot a shuttle, it was aboard discovery. from discovery dr. bernard harris became the first african-american to walk in space. discovery launched the hubble telescope and was the first orbiter to rendezvous with a russian space station mir, signaling an era of cooperation in spac
could be his last stand in the capital city of triply and libyans still loyal to him must be troubled by his unbelievably erratic messages. today he phoned into libyan state tv to blame the rebellion. you can t make this up. on milk and nescafe spike with hallucinagenic drugs taken by the youth, provided by osama bin laden. take a listen. why do you try drag bin laden into our country? why do you listen? you are brainwashed by bin laden telling you what to do. those who are inside, who are brainwashing our peep, we have to look for those gangs. we have to dismiss those from our lands. these offer to your children, arrest them and bring them to account. the man you saw on the screen
carnage could be awful. you beginning to wonder when some type of military response will be necessary. if he is able to regain control of tripoli and then kind of organize his forces and his mercenaries and maybe even fly in more mercenary forces, he could then launch attacks on cities like benghazi. that s not a city really able to defend itself. they simply don t have the military manpower to fight back. did she indicate to you whether she and the others in triply have a view of gadhafi the way we ve been seeing him and hearing him? kind of a madman. his statements are hard to square with reality. blaming the revolution that is going on in his country on osama bin laden and drugged the nescafe. so bizarre that you can t make it up. does she share that view? she does. she said everyone knows what he is saying is completely crazy. that it is made up and lies.
special units and foreign mercenaries in city after city. in eastern libya, a protester took the wheel of this armored vehicle, crowds lifted weapons to the sky. meanwhile, gadhafi continues to see top officials defecting. one of his closest aides and his cousin is asking for asylum in egypt. so gadhafi took to the air waves, phoning into libyan tv with another rambling diatribe accusing the u.s. and al qaeda of the uprising against him. he said young protesters were given hallucinogenic drugs by bin laden, that something was slipped into their nescafe coffee. who s in control of his country tonight? most libyans live near the coast and throughout the east the opposition is in control and gadhafi s forces have been pushed out. the battle for control is raging in the west and the cities surrounding gadhafi s base in the capital tripoli.
and he has sent his fractious army into za ouiia. he has also addressed the citizens of that specific town, za ouia. as the libyan state news reader fidgeted through it gadhafi claimed al qaeda is responsible for the protests. really? he also claimed young people had been given hallucinogenic drugs in their milk and in their coffee, nescafe specifically, to make them revolt. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in libya. he was driving through libya when the speech came across state radio.รง this is what richard said about it. reporter: i ve listened to speeches in arabic of middle east leaders for 15 years. this does sound like a sane person. gadhafi is now spaking on state radio. it s very difficult to follow. he s all over the place. he s already mentioned the kurds in northern iraq, the unabomber, india, and says the people carrying out this revolt are taking drugs that make them insane. the unabomber?