WASHINGTON — The space shuttle Atlantis roared into space
Monday afternoon to begin a vital 11-day delivery run to the International
Space Station.
The shuttle blasted off at 2:28 p.m. EST (1928 GMT) from
Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The
liftoff was the second-to-last
planned flight for the 24-year-old orbiter — Atlantis is slated to be retired
with its two sister shuttles in about a year.
"All the vehicle systems are outstanding today, the weather
is near perfect," said launch director Mike Leinbach just before launch. "We
wish you good luck, Godspeed, and we'll see you just after Thanksgiving,"
he said to the crew.
"We really appreciate all the effort that’s gone into making
this launch attempt possible," responded commander Charlie Hobaugh.
"We're excited to take this incredible vehicle for a ride and meet up with
another incredible vehicle, the International Space Station."
Hobaugh is leading the six-member
crew on the STS-129 resupply mission to ferry about 27,250 pounds (12,360
kg) worth of spare parts to the station.
"Our flight is one of the first flights that externally
will provide a lot of the spare parts and the long lead type of replacement
items that are required to keep [the station] healthy and running for quite
some time," Hobaugh said in a preflight news conference.
Among the large parts packed onto the shuttle are spare
high-pressure gas tanks, pumps, power units and battery supplies, as well as parts
for the station's robotic arm. The equipment is loaded into two massive
platforms due to be installed on the station's backbone-like metal truss. The
delivery should help set up the orbiting
laboratory to continue to run after the space shuttles stop flying.
"These are the spares that will allow us to utilize the
investment that we've put in," said Mike Sarafin, the lead shuttle flight
director for the mission.
Rookies no more
Flying with Hobaugh are pilot Barry "Butch"
Wilmore and mission specialists Mike Foreman, Bobby Satcher, Randy Bresnik and
Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik are rookie spaceflyers.
"We don’t use the "R" word at all,"
Hobaugh said. "Everybody here is an astronaut. We consider them, even
though they have not been in the environment yet, seasoned astronauts."
A seventh crewmember is slated to join the STS-129 crew for
the ride home: NASA astronaut
Nicole Stott, a space station Expedition 21 flight engineer who's been in
space for about three months, plans to fill the shuttle's remaining seat for
the journey back to Earth.
The astronauts expect to spend Thanksgiving in space.
Bresnik, in particular, will also miss another major family event. His wife
Rebecca is expected to give birth to their second child – a baby girl – while
he is space, according to ABC News.
Foreman, Satcher and Bresnik plan to carry out the mission's
three planned spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs).
"All of the EVAs that were doing are six or seven hours
and there's a number of complicated tasks in each one of them," Satcher
said.
In addition to the spacewalks, the crew plans some complex
robotic work to help attach the new cargo carriers to the station and transfer
the spare parts.
"All that in 11 days,” Sarafin said. "It’s a lot
to package into a finite period of time; it’s a challenging mission."
Monday’s launch marked the start of NASA’s 129th shuttle
mission since the fleet began flying in 1981, as well as the 31st liftoff for
Atlantis.
Tweeting the shuttle
The launch also marked the first time NASA has invited
Twitter followers to attend a liftoff. About 100 fans gathered in Cape
Canaveral for a two-day "tweetup" to view the flight and learn more
about NASA and the shuttle mission.
"I can't stop jumping up and down!" said Jan
DuRaine, who travelled from Valley Springs, Calif. to view the launch. "I
want to experience the sights, the noise and the vibration from the sound
waves. To me, this is the experience of a lifetime."
Attendees said they relished they opportunity even as two
Atlantis astronauts – Satcher and Melvin – plan to tweet about their mission
from space. Satcher is posting updates as Astro_Bones and ZeroG_MD, with
Leland writing under the name Astro_Flow.
"The behind-the-scenes aspect intrigues me," said
Tina Cassler of Lauderdale, Minnesota. "I hope to learn a great deal and
better understand all that they do at NASA."
SPACE.com is providing complete coverage of Atlantis'
STS-129 mission to the International Space Station with Staff Writer Clara
Moskowitz in Washington, D.C. and Managing Editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for shuttle mission
updates and a link to NASA TV.
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