Discovery Launch Successful

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Discovery successfully lifted off on its final flight this afternoon.

Because it was the final flight, I decided to listen to the stirring sounds of "Yeager's Triumph" from the soundtrack of The Right Stuff (the part where 'Gordo' Cooper becomes "the greatest pilot anyone has ever seen" at the end of the film) while I watched. It was amazing. You can hear the music here.

And, if you'd like to see something else amazing, click here to see 132 Shuttle launches in 132 seconds.

WeatherData's Jeremy Lezniak captured these this image of the launch of Discovery (its smoke plume, actually) as captured by the WSR-88D radar on our SmartWarn® screens used by our meteorologists.

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