Sunita Williams headed for the stars

Washington: Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams soared into space on board space shuttle Discovery toward the International Space Station that would be her new home in the stars for the next six months.
Discovery with six other crew took off at 8:47:35 p.m. Saturday (7:17: 35 a.m. IST Sunday) on a column of fire that briefly dispelled the darkness over the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Strong winds had put in doubt NASA's first night launch since the Columbia disaster in 2003 that killed another Indian American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, but the gusts subsided about an hour before. Bad weather postponed an initial launch attempt Thursday.