The launch was carried out exactly at 18:15. More details to come
Avi Blizovsky
A smooth launch for the space shuttle Atlantis on its way to the space station. This was after more than two weeks of repeated postponements due to various malfunctions and due to bad weather.
The crew members on the 11-day mission are: Mission Commander: Brent W. Jett, his lieutenant and shuttle pilot: Christopher G. Ferguson; Mission Specialist: Joseph R. Tanner; Task expert: Daniel C. Burbank (Daniel Burbank); Mission Specialist: Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper; Mission Specialist: Steven J. MacLean.
The six Atlantis crew members will install a second series of solar collector arrays on the space station, thus doubling the station's power generation capacity from sunlight and also adding 17.5 tons to its weight. The astronauts trained for this mission for years. "It's going to be a very busy flight," said shuttle commander Brent Jeff. "There has never been so much continuous work, of components that depend on each other day after day." Their work will require the operation of the robotic arms of the shuttle and the station, three spacewalks and countless tests from the ground necessary to ensure the correctness of the complex operations of the station train.
In addition, the Atlantis mission will also include all the safety procedures that were tried in the two previous flights since the Columbia disaster - the flights of Discovery. Among the procedures: improving the set of photographs during the launch, checking the condition of the heat shield in the space, and a rotation in the space before docking with the space station.
