Atlantis blasts off, ends NASA's four-month launch hiatus

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Atlantis blasted off on the first shuttle flight in four months Monday, with a side-mounted video camera showing the coastline and the brilliant blue ocean receding fast in the distance as the spaceship climbed toward orbit.

The shuttle rose from its seaside pad under tight post-Sept. 11 security, carrying six astronauts and a 14-ton girder that will be installed on the international space station later this week.

It was the first shuttle launch since early June, a long and frustrating delay caused by cracked fuel lines that grounded the entire fleet. The space agency's boss, Sean O'Keefe, described the successful return to flight as "a big deal for NASA."

The launch also marked the debut of the shuttlecam, a color video camera mounted near the top of Atlantis' external fuel tank. The camera beamed down live images as the shuttle soared out over the Atlantic.

Mission Control told Atlantis' crew that the first two minutes of footage were "nothing short of spectacular." But the camera picked up debris when the shuttle's rocket boosters dropped away, and the rest of the pictures were foggy.

Hurricane Lili added to NASA's woes last week, with the first-ever shutdown of Mission Control and a five-day launch postponement.

Earlier in the day, engineers managed to work around a heater problem in a water-drainage line aboard Atlantis. The trouble cropped up Sunday in one of three lines used to discharge water produced by Atlantis' electricity-producing fuel cells.

Although it was raining and lightning advisories were in effect as the astronauts headed to the pad early in the afternoon, the sky quickly cleared.

'Just spectacular'

The shuttlecam showed the billowing plume of rocket exhaust moments after liftoff, and then the coastline and foamy white waves, and then the cape. TV viewers could make out Atlantis separating from its empty fuel tank eight minutes into the flight.

"Those views were just spectacular," said Jim Halsell, a shuttle manager and former shuttle commander. "It's the next best thing to actually being on board."

Fighter jets patrolled the wide no-fly zone around the pad to guard against a terrorist attack. The Air Force chased after six stray planes in the final hours before liftoff.

During their week at the space station, Atlantis' astronauts will conduct three spacewalks to hook up the $390 million girder. It measures 45 feet long and 15 feet wide and is crammed with wiring, plumbing, three radiators and a railroad cart.