Congratulations to NASA and the crew of STS-121 Discovery on a perfect liftoff, and a great way to celebrate Independence day! If you missed the launch, NASA has all the info and videos to watch and/or download.

I joked about not going out to see the fireworks this evening, but after watching the launch this morning, I’m satisfied that I’ve seen the fireworks that matter most today.

The funny thing is, I probably would have missed the live broadcast, but I was on the line with Roadrunner technical support (internet service had gone down) – and he was distracted by the launch preparations on TV. I told him to go ahead and put me back on hold so we could both watch…

I snagged a few more images from NASA – click the image for the full-size version!