Spectacular launch. The photography is incredible these days.

Amazing live footage yesterday night on Nasa TV. First time actually seeing ice particles coming off, reflecting against a darker space, latter part of ascend with the external fuel tank still attached.

Awesome, but now it's time to produce something useful in return for the hundreds of billions spend so far on this program.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public

Astronauts carefully check shuttle for post-launch damage

Feb 8, 2008 ,
HOUSTON - The crew of Shuttle Atlantis conducted a painstaking laser inspection of the ship's wings Friday, looking for any signs of damage from its trip into space.
Launched Thursday after two months of technical delays, the shuttle was chasing the international space station in orbit with a special delivery: Europe's $2 billion Columbus lab. The shuttle was scheduled to reach it Saturday.
But first the crew of seven astronauts had to determine whether the shuttle was damaged by at least three pieces of foam or other debris that came off the fuel tank two minutes after the liftoff.
There was no evidence that the debris hit Atlantis. But the astronauts were spending much of Friday using a laser-tipped inspection pole to examine the ship's vulnerable wings and nose. The images they gather will be beamed to the ground and thoroughly analyzed over the new few days....

Continues ...

Hi all,
A little low tech, but also cool is watching the international space station passing over your head.
It is visible as a big bright star moving slowly across the sky.
Well of course it has to be night and the best is a bright clear sky.
Checkout when a spacecraft will be flying over your city:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

Have a nice day,
Path7.