Lift off!!!

I just watched the liftoff of Discovery for STS-128, the 128th shuttle mission. It was beautiful, seemingly flawless. There are just six more space shuttle missions left, according to a commenter at spacevidcast.com. Discovery is celebrating 25 years in space. I have only seen the shuttle once in person--when Enterprise, the prototype, was on Boeing 747s and a scaffolding out at Edwards Air Force Base in the late 70s. I always wanted to see a fully-functional shuttle land or lift-off, but I had moved by the time the space shuttles got into space, and oddly enough the only southern state I've never set foot into is Florida. Still, I'm glad that NASA shows the video on the their website.

For more on the mission, check out the NASA page for the Space Shuttle. You can also check out the Wikipedia page.

Here's wishing the crew good luck and safe flying for the rest of the mission.

PS Check out Wired.com's look at the weirdest NASA mission patches.