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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Light-filled clouds of smoke and steam roll across Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center as space shuttle Endeavour roars into the night sky atop twin towers of flame on the STS-123 mission. At right is the 300,000-gallon water tower that provides the water used for sound suppression on the pad at liftoff. The liftoff was on time at 2:28 a.m. EDT. Endeavour's crew will make a record-breaking 16-day mission to the International Space Station and deliver the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. Photo courtesy of Scott Andrews