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Launch Control

Long before the astronauts board the shuttle, Kennedy Space Center launch controllers report for work inside a Firing Room and carefully watch their monitors to make sure everything is properly working at pad 39B, some 4.2 miles (6.7 kilometers) away. Although quiet and professional, the room's atmosphere also is filled with anticipation and excitement.

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Thumbs Up

After waking up about 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (23:30 GMT) on Thursday and spending the night with last-minute reviews of their flight plans, the crew ate a light dinner about 3:50 a.m. EDT (07:50 GMT), attended a weather briefing, and then began putting on their orange spacesuits, as seen in this view of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

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Wave Bye Bye

Still three hours and 45 minutes away from launch, Atlantis' five astronauts and two cosmonauts departed the crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center for the 20-minute drive to pad 39B. It's always a dramatic and colorful moment, the last official public appearance of the crew before a launch. The crew is smiling at the gathered crowd of well-wishers and news media, but you know their minds are on the job ahead.

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Destination: Atlantis

Once the crew arrived at the launch pad, they were greeted with a fully fueled and very much alive Space Shuttle Atlantis, beginning their journey to orbit with a modest elevator ride 19 stories straight up the gantry.

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Doorway to Space

You have to crawl through the door of the space shuttle before you can float inside the crew cabin in orbit. Here, astronaut Dan Burbank (foreground) is helped on with his parachute while astronaut Scott Altman waits for his turn to board Atlantis through the circular hatchway at the rear of the white room.

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Weather Recon

As the astronauts board the shuttle and launch controllers continue their work, chief astronaut Charlie Precourt takes off in a Shuttle Training Aircraft to scout around the area for unwanted clouds and rain. Although there are some storms to explore to the northeast, Precourt reports that everything is looking fine over the Cape.

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Inside View

Small cameras placed inside Atlantis captured the scene as walls became floors while crew members were helped into their seats and strapped into place. In the foreground, Boris Borukov hangs on to a handle that helped lift himself into his seat on the shuttle's middeck -- a wall of lockers against his face acting in this picture as a ceiling.

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We Have a Liftoff

The clouds stayed away and shuttle Atlantis lifts off precisely on time to begin its 8.5-minute trip into orbit, sending shockwaves of sound across Florida's Space Coast in a spectacle seen by thousands and thousands of people all over Central Florida.

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Rolling Away

Almost immediately after launch, Atlantis rolls on a heading to match the International Space Station's orbital path over Earth, allowing at least one NASA camera a different view of the shuttle as it reaches for space riding a pillar of fire and smoke.

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All In A Day's Work

After all the drama and power of liftoff, the payoff comes when Atlantis' cargo bay doors are opened and the shuttle crew is given approval to remain in space and begin work on their mission. After some housekeeping and another maneuver to close in on the space station, it was time for the astronauts to turn in and enjoy their first rest period in space.