A rare night launch early this morning at 5:21 Central Time for space shuttle Discovery hauling a crew of seven along with 10 tons of equipment for a 13-day mission. The 131st shuttle launch is the 33rd mission to the international space station (ISS) and only the 35th, and potentially last, launch in darkness. An easily visible ISS passed 220 miles above the launch site 15 minutes before blast off. This mission holds the record for the most women in space at the same time.

Seated are STS-131 Commander Alan Poindexter (right), commander; and Pilot James Dutton. Standing from the left are Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson (photo by NASA)

Only three more scheduled launches to go before the shuttle retires this year. Curiously, space travel still doesn’t seem to impress many these days. Fox News was the only news channel I found that provided coverage beginning more than two minutes before launch and as a bonus had a real astronaut on hand to provide commentary. Live video during launch from a camera mounted on the side of the external fuel tank and in the shuttle bay, three planned space walks scheduled for more than six hours each, solid rocket boosters generating more the five million pounds of thrust, and 0 to 17,000 miles per hour in six minutes are all just too pedestrian.