A patched-up Atlantis blasted off Friday with seven astronauts — including Nebraskan Clayton Anderson — on the first space shuttle flight of 2007.
MIKE SCHNEIDER / Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, June 7, 2007 7:00 pm
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Atlantis’ external fuel tank looked like a beat-up old car that had bodywork done in someone’s garage, but it still helped launch the first space shuttle mission of 2007.
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 6:38 p.m. CDT, setting a course for the international space station.
“See you in a couple weeks,’’ Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said shortly before lifting off.
The countdown was nearly flawless, but it appeared that something fell from the tank more than two minutes into the ascent, just a few seconds after the solid rocket boosters separated from Atlantis.
Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said that foam did fall off the tank, as expected, but that it happened too late in the ascent to be a problem. A preliminary analysis showed it didn’t strike the shuttle, Hale said.
“The tank performed in a magnificent way, despite having several thousands of repairs to it,’’ Hale said.
The shuttle smoothly settled into orbit around the Earth.
Minutes after launch, Atlantis’ contrails formed an intricate and unusual knot in the Florida sky, framed by the colors of sunset and with the bright light of Venus peeking through.
Veteran shuttle watchers oohed and aahed at the second sky show of the night.
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.
“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.
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.
Months of repairs resulted in white spots blotching its pencil-shaped tank.
“We have done extensive tests and analysis,’’ said LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager.
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, a Nebraska native, 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.