Last evening, we paused the DVD player to watch the liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery. After a couple of aborted countdowns earlier in the week, Discovery, once again, roared into space from the Florida Coast.
Damsel snapped this image with her camera just at the moment of liftoff. Click to enlarge.
From NASA:
With seven astronauts and a host of experiments and equipment on board, space shuttle Discovery completed a flawless ascent into orbit Friday night to begin a two-day chase of the International Space Station. With Commander Rick “C.J. ” Sturckow at the controls, the shuttle lifted off on-time at 11:59 p.m. EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will rendezvous and dock with the station Sunday and the crew will begin transferring equipment to the outpost during the 13-day mission.