Sunita Williams [Images] on Sunday became the second woman of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla [Images] to venture into space when the US shuttle Discovery, with seven astronauts on board, rose into the night sky on a 12-day repair mission to the International Space Station [Images].

The shuttle blasted off with a thunderous roar in a cloud of white smoke and flame and reached orbit about nine minutes later also carrying with it a $11 million truss segment to add to the space lab.

This is the first niight launch by NASA [Images] in four years since the disintegration of space shuttle Columbia in 2003 which killed seven astronauts, including Chawla.

Photograph: Getty Images