GN10375 Caption.
Space Shuttle Discovery Launch, STS-26
Photograph released:  October 3, 1988

Best view of space shuttle launch. Just after lift off from pad, one side has clear view of tower, other is billows of smoke. Vertical orientation. STS-26 marked which launched from Kennedy Space Centre's pad 39-B marked the return to manned space flight after the January 1986 Challenger accident. 

Exhaust plumes billow from the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and cover launch pad as OV-103, atop of the orange external tank (ET), clears the launch tower and heads for Earth orbit. STS-26 marks OV-103's first flight since September 1985 and NASA's first manned mission since the 51L Challenger accident on January 28, 1996.