Up Up And Away

A reader sends in a shot of yesterday's shuttle launch from his window in Sanford, Florida. John Hudson does some leg work:

It's Had an Amazing Career, writes Sharon Gaudin at Computer World: "Discovery was the shuttle that returned the United States to space flight after both the shuttles Challenger and Columbia accidents. It also was the shuttle that carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit, and it has since gone aloft twice so astronauts could maintain the telescope."

This Is the Beginning of the End, writes the CTV News staff: "NASA has decided to bring the shuttle program to an end, ushering an uncertain future for the U.S. space program. The White House has said it wants to retire the 30-year-old shuttle program to free NASA up for grander outer space travel, with plans to explore asteroids and Mars."

TDW Geek has video of the launch. NASA produced a video retrospective.