Skyehaven’s Cool Thing of the Day

Keep an eye on the Madeira Islands. They’re aiming to set a new world record for the world’s largest fireworks display. They took the prize with their 2006/2007 New Year’s display and this year are attempting to re-break their own record. It should be a party!

Update: If you missed seeing it live, here’s the show from YouTube.

For CNN junkies, you’ll be pleased to know that Miles O’Brien has another gig. For the rest of you, this is probably the closest you’ll get to a shuttle launch without coming to Florida. For myself, I think I’ll be at the beach. There’s nothing quite like an almost-night launch. As the shuttle rockets off into space, the contrail rises up past the grey line and goes from a darkly clouded column of steam at its base to beautifully lit with sunset colors. I wish I had a good camera so I could try to get a picture to share of Endeavour blasting off tonight, but pictures really don’t do the sight justice.

EDIT: I removed the live stream, but you can find plenty of video coverage of the flight here:  http://spaceflightnow.com/

While you’re waiting for the space shuttle to launch, be sure to check out NASA’s new streaming video from the ISS. When they don’t actually have video streaming, it shows the flyover path so you can get an idea if you’ll be able to see it pass overhead. If you can’t watch the video, for whatever reason, you can still listen to the mission audio.

Enjoy!