Shuttle Atlantis Blasts Off

First Flight Of 2007 Gets Underway Without Major Problems

(AP)  A patched-up Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts Friday on the first space shuttle flight of 2007, putting NASA back on track after a run of bad luck and scandal that included a damaging hailstorm and a lurid love triangle.

Its big orange fuel tank covered with white blotches where the foam insulation had been repaired, the spaceship rose from its seaside launch pad with a roar and climbed into a clear and still-brightly lit sky at 7:38 p.m. EDT, setting a course for the international space station.

The countdown was nearly flawless, and the shuttle smoothly settled into orbit around the Earth.

During the 11-day flight, Atlantis' astronauts will deliver a new segment and a pair of solar panels to the orbiting outpost. They will also swap out a member of the space station's crew.

The mission had been delayed for three months after a freak storm at the launch pad hurled golf-ball-size hail at Atlantis' 154-foot fuel tank, putting thousands of pockmarks in its vital insulating foam and one of the orbiter's wings.

---

Tech Talk Vlog: Tour the launch pad

---

"It took us a while to get to this point, but the ship is in great shape," launch director Mike Leinbach said just before liftoff.

Over the past few months, NASA has also seen the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in an alleged plot to kidnap her rival for a shuttle pilot's affections; a murder-suicide at the Johnson Space Center in Houston; and the derailment of a train carrying rocket-booster segments for future shuttle launches. More recently, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has come under fire for suggesting that global warming may not be a problem worth wrestling with.

"We've had a tough six months for a number of different reasons," Griffin told The Associated Press hours before the liftoff. "We'd love to have a textbook launch and a textbook mission. It would just make everybody feel good."

NASA has not had a shuttle launch since December.

After the hailstorm, Atlantis was rolled back to the hangar, and the space agency decided to sand down and patch the gouge marks with foam rather than swap out the entire tank.

The foam has been of paramount concern to NASA ever since the Columbia disaster in 2003, when a chunk of the insulating material broke off during liftoff and gashed a wing, allowing fiery gases to penetrate the shuttle during its return to Earth. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.

Although the top of the tank Friday looked like a beat-up old car that had undergone bodywork in someone's garage, officials said it was safe.

"We have done extensive tests and analysis," said LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager.

There was no immediate word from NASA on whether any dangerous pieces of foam fell off the tank during the ascent.

The hailstorm forced NASA to reduce the number of shuttle missions in 2007 from five to four. The space agency hopes to fly at least 12 construction missions besides this one to the space station, and also plans to send a crew to repair the Hubble Space Telescope before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Atlantis' crew is led by commander Rick Sturckow. The other members are pilot Lee Archambault and mission specialists Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson, Danny Olivas, James Reilly and Clayton Anderson. It is the first all-male crew at launch since 2002.

Anderson will replace astronaut Sunita Williams as the U.S. representative aboard the space station, and Williams will return to Earth aboard Atlantis. She has spent the past six months in orbit.

Two astronauts will not be assisting in the launch as previously planned.

Nowak had been assigned to the ground team that communicates with the astronauts in flight. But she was fired by NASA in March, a month after her arrest.

And the object of her affections, Bill Oefelein, had been scheduled to fly a weather plane at a shuttle emergency landing site in Europe. But he was dropped from the astronaut corps this month and returned to the Navy.

[idailaeq]

Further, the corridor of exhaust gases spreads over a lateral extent of greater than 600 miles in a day, so no local "ozone hole" could occur above the launch site. Images taken by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer at various points following Shuttle launches show no measurable ozone decrease.

As for what the missions accomplish: They accomplish many things including preparation for extended time in space, as well as improving our way of life on Earth. I don't pretend to understand everything they do up there, but I trust that their research will help improve our present and future lives down here.

[idailaeq]

How much does it cost to launch a Space Shuttle? The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission.

What types of propellants are used in the Shuttle? How much do they weigh? At liftoff, an orbiter and External Tank carry 835,958 gallons of the principle liquid propellants: hydrogen, oxygen, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, and nitrogen tetroxide. The total weight is 1,607,185 pounds.

Is it true that launching the Space Shuttle creates a local ozone hole, and that the Space Shuttle releases more chlorine than all industrial uses worldwide? No, that is not true. NASA has studied the effects of exhaust from the Space Shuttle's solid rocket motors on the ozone. In a 1990 report to Congress, NASA found that the chlorine released annually in the stratosphere would be about 0.25 percent of the total amount of halocarbons released annually worldwide (0.725 kilotons by the Shuttle 300 kilotons from all sources).

The report concludes that Space Shuttle launches at the current rate pose no significant threat to the ozone layer and will have no lasting effect on the atmosphere. The exhaust plume from the Shuttle represents a trivial fraction of the atmosphere, and even if ozone destruction occurred within the initial plume, its global impact would be inconsequential. (continued)

[drummer94]

Wish the picture would have been clearer. Atlantis, the flag,bright sky. Kinda makes ya feel proud and humbled at the same time.

[grammawhamma]

First of all I want to make it clear that I am not a global warming freak. But I am for a clean environment. I watched this shuttle take off on the news tonight. The amount of exhaust left behind was amazing. How much fuel do these shuttle projects use? How much does each mission cost? I would like it if someone could explain to me exactly what these space shuttle missions accomplish. I remember once they sent vegetable seeds up in space to see how they would germinate...but why? I'm not being c.o.c.k.y I just really want to know the answers. Thanks

[smartie100]

kahn9606 ummm what the???? I think your brain left on that shuttle.

[hawksprings]

khan9606, dude, you forgot to take your meds again.

[Ju-suk.Han]

A arranged plan explanes us(U.S) how japanese invaded the pearl harbour.I'm living in a town who pre-set(free use available) and anything is possible in first-sight,but the BLACK-MINDED people use time and space, and it is ready for a western-hero to can't(kant smoke)allow the illreconcirable gang-law prevailed in korean people nation(rent follow negative-morgage in smog heritage) when ONLY god(FATHER in westan)can save my familom even inATANTISsateliteSky!

[hawksprings]

What? Is Paris on the shuttle? I wanna see!

...

[smartie100]

No kidding!! The nation is gripped with concern for Paris and CBS is blathering about some shuttle mission.

[johnshaft4]

How can this be considered "news" as compared to the tragic Paris Hilton injustice?