With 100 internet-savvy Nasa fans cheering on the shuttle and churning out constant Twitter updates, Atlantis sailed smoothly into orbit with six astronauts and a full load of spare parts for the International Space Station.

After more than a month’s delay, space shuttle Endeavour and seven astronauts thundered into orbit on a flight to the international space station, hauling up a veranda for Japan’s enormous lab and looking to set a crowd record.

Nasa said today it had delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery while it runs tests to determine whether newly-installed valves would cause serious damage if they broke during lift-off.

Shuttle Discovery was in fast pursuit of the international space station today following a spectacular launch that one astronaut called “the greatest show on Earth”.

America’s space agency has been rocked by reports of astronauts drunk before flying and a NASA worker sabotaging a computer bound for the international space station.