Wahoo! Space Shuttle Discovery is on its way to the International Space Station under the Command of Pamela Melroy, a veteran Shuttle pilot. The anti-rain dancing paid off (or was it George Lucas in the audience waving off the clouds?) with Discovery lifting off at its appointed 11:38 am Eastern launch time.
People who traveled out to see the event were delighted, including Star Wars director George Lucas, whose "Return of the Jedi" Skywalker Lightsaber was flown on Discovery to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.
As for the shuttle, we are thrilled for another successful launch and look forward to an action packed mission with five EVA's, the addition of the Harmony node, and the move of the huge solar power truss.
People say, "Oh, NASA is just going in circles" with the shuttle and station as though that is an insult! Yet at least 5 people have paid 20 million dollars to go "in circles" for a week. Heck, I would if I had 20 million (so would the people complaining by the way). Now if they said, "NASA makes going in circles look boring," that is a complaint I could get behind. I assure you there is nothing boring about flying 28,000 Km/hr (17,500 MPH) over the most stunning planet in the solar system and floating free.
Should NASA go beyond Low Earth Orbit? Of course! But don't forget to enjoy where we are while we are here. I mean the view is not bad, not bad at all...
Here is a closeup view of Harmony and three of its six hatches! 
