<img alt=“Endeavourshuttle.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/Endeavourshuttle.jpg” width=“425” height=“295” align= “right” border=“0” hspace=“10px” />After six aborted attempts, space shuttle Endeavour finally launched, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission.

For full immersive coverage of Apollo’s historic lift-off, see the real-time ApolloPlus40 Twitter project by Nature News; and an interactive recreation at We Choose the Moon.

Back to the present-day merely-Space Station-orbiting Endeavour: appropriately for a launch delayed by fuelling glitches and thunderstorms, all was not perfect. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s space operations chief, says eight or nine pieces of foam insulation came off the external fuel tank during launch, and that the shuttle was hit two or three times about two minutes into the flight (AP). The impacts came where the right wing joins the shuttle fuselage.

Whether the damage will prevent Endeavour making the return flight to Earth in 16 days is not yet clear. Space station residents will take more detailed pictures on Friday. Still, if needs be, the astronauts could move into the space station for a few weeks and await another shuttle back, Gerstenmaier said.

Endeavour’s seven crew members, now in orbit around the International Space Station, are expecting a 16-day mission, including five spacewalks.

Image credit: NASA/Jeffrey Marino