Technical hurdles have been overcome and a favourable weather window has finally been found. At 18:03 UTC last night (03:03 local time), Solar Impulse co-founder André Borschberg took off from Nagoya, Japan, onboard zero-fuel aircraft SI2.

After the maintenance part of the flight, the decision has been taken to continue towards Hawaii.

This flight will be the longest ever attempted by a solar-powered aircraft: more than 6500 km. When Borschberg will land in Hawaii after a flight that will last approximately 120 hours, he will have broken the duration and the distance records previously established by the same aircraft and its previous version. 

The whole flight is monitered from the Mission Centre in Monaco, where meteorologists, scientists and technicians are in constant contact with Borschberg to help him achieve this historic exploit. 

(photo credit: Solar Impulse)