Smoke and steam billow as space shuttle Discovery races toward space atop twin towers of flame.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, smoke and steam billow across Launch Pad 39A as space shuttle Discovery races toward space atop twin towers of flame. Launch was on time at 5:02 p.m. EDT. Just visible beneath Discovery's main engine nozzles are blue cones of light, the shock or mach diamonds that are a formation of shock waves in the exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion system. Discovery is making its 35th flight. The STS-124 mission is the 26th in the assembly of the space station. It is the second of three flights launching components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The shuttle crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and its remote manipulator system, or RMS. The 14-day flight includes three spacewalks. Photo courtesy of Scott Andrews