Space Shuttle Endeavour on its way

Space Shuttle Endeavour this morning blasted off at 02:28 EDT (06:28 GMT) from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the 25th mission to the ISS, carrying the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo lab and the Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or "Dextre". Endeavour lifts off …

[Trevor]

Has NASA hidden the maple leaf again?

...cos that's what they did on the last arm install mission, wasn't it?

[Francis Boyle]

If they give me one for my shed

I'll happily display the maple leaf.

[Del Merritt]

Kibo In Space!

"UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALL-WISE LEADER KIBO, THE NEW NETWORK SHALL BE ORGANIZED THUSLY: Three hierarchies encompassing ALL HUMAN DISCOURSE: nonbozo.* bozo.* megabozo.*

All hail Eris^H^H^H^HKibo!

[Christof Semple]

Why the nighttime launch?

The shuttle was only supposed to launch during daytime hours, to accomodate the safety photography that would ensure the ground crew would catch any damage to the shuttle during liftoff.

So why, after only two launches since the return-to-flight after the 2003 Columbia disaster, are they launching this at night again?

[Robert Moore]

@Christof Semple

Because night launches look really cool, of course.

[ian]

Other Kibo features...

... include the "Hello Kitty Whale Tracking System & Harpoon Director" and the "Tropical Rainforest Remnant Detector". Why is there no mention of the "Chinese Effluent Plume Imager"?

[Anonymous John]

Re Why the nighttime launch?

This is actually the eighth flight since the Columbia disaster. And the second night launch since then. The cameras can photograph falling foam even at night. And the Shuttle is checked three times in orbit for tile damage.

There's also the growing evidence that the foam shedding problem has been largely sorted. The Shuttle is now a safer vehicle than it's ever been.

A daylight launch yesterday couldn't have been put into a suitable orbit to dock with the ISS.

[Radim Horak]

@ Christof Semple

WOW.. guess that you do not follow the shuttle launches. There were many more than two launches since Columbia. And I do believe that at least one night launch already happened since.

I do believe that the night time launch restrictions were in place only for the RTF (return to flight) missions STS-114 in 2005 and one more...

Alien icon cause the truth is out there... where is my tinfoil hat?

[Fred]

wow...

Nobody actually commented on the actual launch...

[Nano nano]

Do I detect a tenuous Morse connection ...

Endeavour ... Dexter<H><H>re ... shame there's no crew member called Lewis ...