CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. – After months of delay, NASA's shuttle Atlantis blasted off
from the agency's Florida spaceport Friday in a flawless liftoff, kicking off
an 11-day construction flight for seven astronauts bound for the International
Space Station (ISS).
Launch
occurred on time at 7:38:04 p.m. EDT (2338:04 GMT), as daylight waned here at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Storm clouds hovering around the launch
facility in the days leading up to launch were hustled inland by sea winds in
time for liftoff, just as forecasters predicted.
"Ok,
CJ it took us awhile to get to this point, but the ship's in great shape, we've
got a beautiful weather day for you," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told
Atlantis commander Rick "CJ" Sturckow. "Good luck and Godspeed."
"See
you in a couple of weeks," Sturckow said as he thanked the entire NASA
team for readying Atlantis for launch.
Riding
spaceward aboard Atlantis were the seven astronauts of NASA's
STS-117 crew ,
who have weathered three months of delays to launch their ISS construction
mission. The crew
is tasked with delivering and installing two
massive truss segments and a pair of power-generating solar arrays to the
space station's starboard side.
"The
solar arrays are tremendously important to us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's
associate administrator of space operations, adding that they will prime the
ISS to support the new
Harmony connecting node, the European-built Columbus laboratory and the
Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) due to launch later this year and in early
2008. "That power is necessary to support that node module, which then
provides power to Columbus and the JEM module."
Back on
track
The launch
of Atlantis' STS-117 mission marks a late start for NASA's first shuttle
mission of 2007, the first of up to four planned for this year.
In late
February, a freak hailstorm left thousands defects in the foam insulation of
the shuttle's external fuel tank, forcing the agency to delay the planned March
15 launch for repairs and to decrease the number of planned launches this year
from five to four. But the weather seemed to clear Friday, with even late-breaking
fog and rain showers at a pair of emergency shuttle landing sites overseas also
easing in time for the space shot.
Friday's
successful launch is also a morale boost for an agency that has been mired in
controversy in recent months, NASA administrator Michael Griffin told the Associated
Press.
The agency
recently fired
astronaut Lisa Nowak after her arrest for allegedly plotting to kidnap a romantic
rival for the affections of another astronaut, William Oefelein, whom NASA has also dismissed.
Nowak was supposed to serve as lead spacecraft communicatory, known as CAPCOM,
for STS-117.
NASA has
also weathered the unprecedented hail damage to Atlantis' fuel tank; a
murder-suicide at its Johnson Space Center; and just last week, Griffin himself
came under fire for publicly
doubting whether global warming was a problem humanity could or should deal
with.
A busy
mission
Atlantis is
scheduled to dock with the space station at 3:36 pm EDT (1936 GMT) on Sunday,
June 10.
Once there,
the shuttle astronauts plan to perform at least three spacewalks to install the
17.5-ton Starboard 3/Starboard 4 truss segments and their two solar wings.
The
new equipment represents the heaviest payload ever launched to the space
station, NASA officials have said. At 35,678 pounds (16,183 kilograms), the new trusses and
solar arrays are about 701 pounds (317 kilograms) heavier than their portside
counterparts already aboard the ISS.
The STS-117
astronauts will also fold away an older solar wing into its storage boxes so
its central truss segment can be moved during a future spaceflight.
Spacewalkers
Robert Curbeam
and Christer Fuglesang from last
December's STS-116 mission ran into unexpected
difficulties while performing a similar retraction maneuver on another pair
of solar arrays. The wings got stuck during mid-furl and guide wires had to be
coaxed free with tape-covered pliers and other tools before folding away
completely.
The STS-117
astronauts said they have taken the lessons learned during that excursion to
heart.
"What took
them an entire EVA we're hoping to get done in significantly less time," said
mission specialist James Reilly II.
STS-117
mission specialist Clayton Anderson will relieve Expedition
15 flight engineer Sunita
Williams, who has been aboard the ISS since last December. Williams is
scheduled to return to Earth with the STS-117 crew on June 19.
Friday's
successful space shot marked the 118th launch of a
NASA space shuttle and the 28th liftoff of the Atlantis orbiter. It is NASA's
21st shuttle flight to the ISS.
The Associated Press contributed to
this report.
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