BBC News with Marion Marshall

The last US space shuttle has

blasted off

from Cape Canaveral in Florida, bringing an end to the 30-year-old programme. For the first time in half a century, the space agency Nasa has no manned space flights on its agenda. Jonny Dymond witnessed the historic lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center.

"TD CTLS on 212, we're ready to go. All right. Very good."

The orbiter's engines fired, then the slim white solid rocket boosters leapt into life; steam

billow

ed from the launch site; two torrents of yellow fire poured from the shuttle; a deep roar took hold of the sky. For half a minute, spectators stood

transfix

ed, and then the last shuttle slipped through the clouds, powering its way towards the stars.

With a few hours to go before south Sudan becomes an independent state, final preparations are underway in the capital Juba. The government in Khartoum has formally recognised its southern neighbour as a new country, but has also confirmed that southern Sudanese will lose the right and nationality in the north. Our correspondent Will Ross is in Juba.

We're at this

roundabout

in the middle of Juba. A digital clock is

counting down

to midnight. South Sudan will

start out

as one of the poorest nations on the planet, where one in seven children dies before the age of five. That will not change without lasting peace. Thousands of UN peacekeepers will still have to be deployed here, and there are fears of clashes between northern and southern troops along that oil-rich border. The celebrations may be brief. There are so many challenges ahead.