Towers of flame propel space shuttle Endeavour into the dark sky past the lightning mast on Launch Pad 39A.

Towers of flame propel space shuttle Endeavour into the dark sky past the lightning mast on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on the launch of the STS-123 mission. Beneath the main engines 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. Liftoff was on time at 2:28 a.m. EDT. Endeavour's crew will make a record-breaking 16-day mission to the International Space Station and deliver the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. Photo courtesy of Scott Andrews