Space Shuttle "Atlantis" Blasts Off

Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer
Associated Press

February 7, 2008

After two months of delays, the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off today at 2:45 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The shuttle is now en route to the International Space Station carrying Europe's two-billion-U.S.-dollar science lab named Columbus that spent years waiting to set sail.

Atlantis and its seven-person crew roared away from the seaside launch pad after overcoming fuel-gauge problems that thwarted back-to-back launch attempts in December.

All week bad weather had threatened to delay the flight. Most recently, the same cold front that spawned killer tornadoes across the South stayed far enough away to cut NASA a break.

(Related photos: "Tornadoes Ravage U.S. South" [February 6, 2008].)

The sky was cloudy at launch time, but rain and thunderstorms remained off to the west.

"All systems are go," launch director Doug Lyons told the astronauts on board. "I'd like to wish you a successful mission and safe return."

Shuttle commander Stephen Frick replied: "Looks like today's a good day, and we're ready to go fly."

Labs in Space

About 300 Europeans gathered at the launch site to see Atlantis take off with the Columbus lab, which is the European Space Agency's primary contribution to the space station.

It will join the U.S. lab, Destiny, in orbit for seven years.

A larger Japanese lab—Kibo, or "Hope"—will require three shuttle flights to get off the ground, beginning in March.

Frick and his U.S., German, and French crew will reach the space station on Saturday and begin installing Columbus the very next day.

Three spacewalks are planned during the flight, which is scheduled to last 11 to 12 days. (Watch video of astronauts on spacewalks.)

Besides Columbus, Atlantis will drop off a new space station resident, French Air Force General Leopold Eyharts, who will swap places with NASA astronaut Daniel Tani to get Columbus installed and operational.

Tani will return to Earth aboard the shuttle, ending a nearly four-month mission.

Retirement Looming

To NASA's relief, all four fuel gauges in Atlantis' external fuel tank worked properly during the final stage of the countdown.

The gauges failed back in December because of a faulty connector, so NASA redesigned the part to fix the problem.

NASA officials were anxious to get Atlantis flying as soon as possible to keep alive hopes of achieving six launches this year.

The space agency faces a 2010 deadline for finishing the station and retiring the shuttles.

That equates to four or five shuttle flights a year between now and then, which NASA Administrator Michael Griffin considers achievable.

"We're coming back, and I think we are back, from some pretty severe technical problems that led to the loss of Columbia," Griffin said, referring to the tragic destruction of that space shuttle in 2003.

Barring any more major mechanical trouble or freak hailstorms, like the one that battered Atlantis's fuel tank a year ago, "this should be like some of those earlier times when we had some fairly uninterrupted stretches with no technical problems where we could just fly," Griffin said.

"That's what I'm looking forward to."

Free Email News Updates
Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample).