The Shuttle is Off!

NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour lifted off on its STS-127 mission on time at 6:03 pm EDT today, July 15, 2009.

Update: The shuttle is now in orbit.

Update 2: Spaceflightnow.com is reporting that there were debris events during liftoff that may have damaged as many as nine tiles.

Update 3: The pre-scheduled post-flight press conference is underway. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight (head of the space shuttle and space station programs), is very upbeat. He said there were probably 2-3 foam loss events prior to SRB separation (when conditions are most likely to inflict damage). More will be known after the shuttle does its “roll pitch” maneuver as it approaches the International Space Station (ISS), allowing cameras on the ISS to provide additional data.