Space Shuttle launch Images taken at the Banana Creek Viewing Site (Saturn Five Building). Banana Creek is 3.29 miles from launch pad 39A and is where the NASA VIP's and Astronaut Families view the launch.

Download Video of Launch - Video of Landing in MPEG-4 Video Format. Click here for FREE VLC media player

Shot with: Nikon D300 - Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED AF VR Lens (handheld) - GPS unit: di-GPS Basic

Learn more about the Space Shuttle external tank - The external tanks are not reusable. They break up before impact in the Indian Ocean (or Pacific Ocean in the case of direct-insertion launch trajectories, which are currently utilized) away from known shipping lanes

Learn more about the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster - The spent SRBs are recovered from the ocean, refurbished, reloaded with propellant, and reused for several missions. The two SRBs provide the main thrust to lift the space shuttle off the pad and up to an altitude of about 150,000 feet, or 24 nautical miles (28 statute miles).

The spacecraft takes its name from previous ships of exploration named Discovery, primarily HMS Discovery, the sailing ship that accompanied famous explorer James Cook on his third and final major voyage. Others include Henry Hudson's ship Discovery which he used in 1610–1611 to search for a Northwest Passage, and RRS Discovery, a vessel used for expeditions to Antarctica in 1901-1904 by Scott and Shackleton (and still preserved as a museum). The shuttle shares a name with Discovery One, the fictional Jupiter spaceship from the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010.