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Space Shuttle Atlantis launches into orbit |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Friday, 08 February 2008
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 At 2:45 PM EST, the Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle launch had been delayed for nearly two months after the failure of fuel level sensors in the external fuel tank. A faulty connector was blamed for the problems and repaired, and the shuttle launched with no outstanding issues. In the cargo bay is the ESA's Columbus Laboratory, destined for addition to the ISS.
The STS-122 mission, under the command of astronaut Steve Frick, is currently scheduled to last for 11 days. The seven-member crew will install the Columbus Lab on the ISS and perform experiments on the shuttle's external skin, testing new repair techniques for the sensitive thermal shield. They will also swap out ISS resident Daniel Tani for Leopold Eyharts, who will stay on the station until mid-March, 2008. Atlantis is on track to dock with the ISS on Saturday.
The Columbus Laboratory, named after Christopher Columbus, weighs in at 13 tons with pre-installed science racks. By launching with experiments already in place, the ESA hopes to be able to start their science soon after the module in installed (which is expected to be completed in the next four to six weeks). Columbus cost the ESA US$2 billion. More than 350 ESA officials were on hand at the KSC for the launch.
The launch was the first of six planned launches for 2008. NASA plans to launch 11 more shuttle missions to the ISS, along with one final mission to service the aging Hubble Space Telescope, before the shuttle fleet is to be retired by September 2010.
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