Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery woke up to their first day in space today, where the first order of business will be to make sure their ship was not damaged during launch.

Flashes of flame from space shuttle Discovery lit up the darkened sky as the space shuttle blazed off the launch pad for the first night-time lift-off in four years.

From the Johnson Space Centre in Texas to Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the relief was obvious when space shuttle Discovery safely returned to terra firma.

The crews of the US space shuttle Atlantis and international space station Alpha yesterday entered the science laboratory Destiny for the first time after it was attached to its new home.