Endeavour Takes to Space ... and Twitter

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... a space shuttle with a six-member crew headed to the International Space Station! Endeavour launched early Monday morning from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Fla., with the usual tail of fire and massive pile of smoke, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

The goal of the 13-day mission is to deliver and install what's called a new module called Tranquility to the space station. The module, the final one that will complete the space station, will serve as the station's utility and exercise room. The module includes a special, seven-windowed cupola from which operators will control tasks that require the station's robotic arm.

"We’ll see you in a couple of weeks. It’s time to go fly,” said Commander George Zamka before take-off, according to a NASA statement. After the launch was delayed from Sunday due to cloudy weather, it turned out to be what the shuttle's launch director Michael Leinbach called "one of the smoothest ones ever."

The shuttle is scheduled to arrive at the station on Wednesday. You can follow its progress via Twitter; astronaut Nicholas Patrick, a mechanical engineer trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will send updates from orbit. Follow him: @Astro_Nicholas.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Simantov via Flickr