Final Nighttime Shuttle Launch Takes Flight : Big Pic
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Space Shuttle Endeavour launched at 4:14 am ET on Monday morning. Photo credit: Matthew Simantov, Orlando Sentinel.Feb. 8, 2010 -- Endeavour launched into orbit in the early hours of Monday morning to deliver a new segment and observation deck to the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle is set to dock with the space station on Wednesday.
The 4:14 a.m. launch was the second attempt to get Endeavour into orbit having been aborted the previous day due to a "dynamic" weather system over Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla.
Weather threatened to scrub the second launch attempt as thick, low clouds bore down on the launch pad, but fortunately the clouds fragmented in the last moments before launch allowing Endeavour and its crew of six astronauts to launch and chase after the space station.
The 13-day STS-130 mission to the space station is the final planned night launch before the space shuttle fleet is retired later this year. Only four shuttle missions remain.
The 130th shuttle mission comes at a time of great change for NASA as only last week the White House announced plans to cancel the Constellation Program to focus on manned missions to destinations other than the lunar surface. There is now a greater focus on commercial spaceflight to provide the U.S. space agency with manned launch options.
WATCH VIDEO: Find out what it's like to be launch director for NASA.
Photo credit: AP Photo/John Raoux.
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