Shuttle completes first night-time 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.

The shuttle’s seven astronauts – including Dr Nicholas Patrick, 42, originally from Saltburn in Teesside – are on a mission to rewire the international space station, one leg of a three-year race to finish construction on the orbiting outpost before shuttles are retired in 2010.