Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour
Credit:
NASA
Sometimes, the space shuttle
launches at night.
Pictured above, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off in yesterday's early morning hours from
Launch Pad 39A in
Kennedy
Space Center,
Florida,
USA,
bound for the
International Space Station (ISS).
A night launch, useful for reaching the space station easily during some times of the year, frequently creates
vivid launch imagery.
The shuttle, as
pictured above, is framed by an enormous but typical
exhaust plume ejected as the shuttle's
powerful rockets
began lifting the two million kilogram
space bus into
Earth orbit.
Endeavour's mission, labeled
STS-130, includes the
delivery of the
Tranquility module to the space station.
Tranquility will provide extra room for space station astronauts
and includes a large
circular set of windows designed to bestow vastly
improved views of the Earth, the night sky, and the
space station itself.