Tonight's KSC Launch Images of Endeavour

These three Kennedy Space Center images of Endeavour's launch this evening shows a beautiful rise from launch pad 39-A.

NASA Releases Atlantis' Booster Cameras Video

NASA this morning released the videos of Atlantis STS-125 climb to orbit from the prospective of her rocket boosters, and we like most thought it was incredible.

Atlantis lifted-off on Monday, May 11th. We captured a few still images from the different views and find them amazing. The yellow number at the top is seconds into the launch phase nearly nine days ago.

At 39 seconds into Atlantis' launch on May 11, you can see shadow of her smoke pillar from the solid rocket boosters stretch out over the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline of Cape Canaveral - America's Spaceport - is also visible in this shot from the right hand booster.

Nine seconds later, the left booster camera shows the Kennedy Space Center as Atlantis throttle's down her main engines.

India Successfully Launches Satellites Tonight

The country of India launched a pair of satellites this evening from its coastal launch base into low earth orbit, one of which will assist their country in the war on terrorism.

Liftoff of the PSLV-C12 rocket occurred on time at 6:45 am Indian Time Monday morning, or 9:15 pm EDT Sunday evening, from from the Satish Dhawan Space Center's Pad 2 (above today), located on an island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

The prime payload is the RISAT-2, or Radar Imaging 2 satellite, which India obtained from Israel last year, to help fight local terrorism and to survey terrorist cells in neighboring Pakistan. The high tech, super powerful radar imaging on RISAT will allow India to see through tree brush and canvas tents.

The secondary payload is the ANUSAT, which was developed by a university in India. Both satellites were sent into an orbit of 550 km (345 miles) high and at an orbital inclation of 41 degrees to the equator.

This was the thirteenth successful launch out of 15 flights of the PSLV-C12.

Great NASA Shuttle Discovery Launch Images

Two more great NASA - KSC images from Discovery's March 15th launch on mission STS-119.

Beautiful Discovery Launch Images & Video

New Kennedy Space Center images are being release now. Enjoy these great photographs from this evening's 7:43:44 pm EDT launch.

Click Here to watch the launch RePlay in NASA HD quality.

Discovery Lifts-off to the Space Station

The space shuttle Discovery departed Florida's beaches in a beautiful sun set launch on a flight to deliver more power generators to the international space station.

Discovery's solid rocket boosters ignited at 7:43:44 pm EDT this evening, minutes after the sun slipped out beyond the western horizon on a flawless ascent.


Two minutes later, the twin boosters seperated on time from the space shuttle's external tank, where they later fell back to earth to be reused on a future flight.


At the Kennedy Space Center, crowds gathered to watch a space shuttle lift-off - and for many it was their first. For those who have witnessed several, this launch was very beautiful and very spectacular to watch. [For myself, the colors of this launch were as beautiful as that of Endeavour's STS-77 sun rise launch in 1996.]

Discovery will fire her twin jets over the next day and a half to catch up with and later dock to the growing international space station. Locked down in the orbiter's payload bay is the S6 or starboard 6 truss segment. The S6 is the final twin set of huge solar arrays which will allow the station to have more power from the Sun to operate and run the new labs.


Beginning in late-May, the Station will become the home of six astronauts, as international crew members live for several months at a time - working and living - on this great outpost in space.

Following the S6 truss attachment to the station, Discovery's astronauts will perform three spacewalks to help attach power cables from the S6 to the station; and perform other house keeping chores to prepare for future spacewalks this June.

Upcoming for the crew:

• 10:44 pm: Discovery begins Orbit 2
• 11:25 pm: Check out of the shuttle's robot arm
• 02:13 am: Crew begins sleep period

On Tuesday, the orbiter and space station will dock and begin one week of orbital operations in support of a larger more powerful space station, the brightest star in the earth's night sky.

Great KSC Endeavour Launch Images

A few NASA / KSC launch images we just received in... what a beautiful autumn evening launch of Endeavour just hours ago at 7:55:39 pm ET. The entire ascent was clean with no issues.

At a MET+ 5 hrs, 6 mins, this is spacelaunchnews.com.