The view from inside mission control. Photograph: Jane Perrone
Thirteen hours and 13 minutes after Steve Fossett set off from Salina, Kansas, in his bid to fly around the world solo and nonstop, things are looking fairly good.
GlobalFlyer is flying at 45,000ft about 690 miles west of Africa, near the Azores at a speed on 330 knots.
But it hasn't all been plain sailing. In what Fossett described as a "showstopper", the GPS navigation system kept failing for a period of about two hours as he flew from US to Canadian airspace.
This meant GlobalFlyer was effectively flying blind, and although the journey could have continued with a lot of extra help from mission control, it would have been a severe blow.
The GPS reengaged, to everyone's relief, and "interference issues" were blamed, although it seemed to be one of those vague problems that couldn't be pinned down precisely.
The other important news is that Fossett has consumed three chocolate diet shakes so far.
I'm now filing a news story so watch out for that. My other goal for the day is to get a sneaky peek inside mission control on video for you all to see, so stay tuned. As always, comment below if you want to ask me any questions.
My story about the successful takeoff is here and you can watch the video of the takeoff here.
