'The shuttle is always going to be a reflection of what a great nation can do when it dares to be bold and commits to follow through,' he added. Just as the spectators at Cape Canaveral in Florida and tens of millions of television viewers around the world had given up hope, Atlantis began to riseĬommander Christopher Ferguson marked the occasion by announcing ‘Let’s light this fire one more time’ minutes before he blasted into orbit.
Up, up and away: The shuttle almost didn't get off the ground though, as the giant countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center stuck at 0.31seconds for what seemed like an eternity The crew will deliver a year's worth of critical supplies to the International Space Station and return with as much rubbish as possible. In the end, though, the countdown was delayed not by the weather but by the need to make certain the launch pad support equipment was retracted all the way. Nasa waived its own weather rules to allow the lift-off to go forward. The shuttle was visible for 42 seconds before disappearing into the clouds. The four experienced space fliers rode Atlantis from the same pad used more than a generation ago by the Apollo astronauts.
NASA SPACE SHUTTLE LIFTOFF FULL
After days of gloomy forecasts full of rain and heavy cloud cover, the spaceship lifted off at 11.29am local time (16.29 GMT) - just two minutes late - thundering away on the 135th shuttle mission 30 years and three months after the very first flight. soil, and so this final journey of the shuttle era packed in crowds and roused emotions on a scale not seen since the Apollo moon shots. It will be at least three years - possibly five or more - before astronauts launch again from U.S.
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