Bill McKee wrote:
It was still lifting, and maybe they got old and just forgot the "that".



There has only been one space shuttle which blew up on
lift-off, and it wasn't the first one. I guess if there's
been one, you could call it "the first" if you wanted to
imply more were inevitably going to blow up.

The first shuttle launch was the beginning of a safe &
successful mission.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/.../columbia.html

DSK