The space shuttle Atlantis launched Thursday on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station, following weeks of delays and technical glitches that threatened to set back NASA's station construction schedule.
The spacecraft lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:45 p.m. after thick clouds that could have canceled the launch suddenly broke over the central Florida coastline.
"Looks like today's a good day and we're ready to go fly," said the shuttle commander, Stephen N. Frick.
"We wish you smooth sailing to the New World among the stars," said launch official Gerry Goodson, making one of many launch-day references to Christopher Columbus' journey to America. Atlantis is carrying a 10-ton, $2-billion European laboratory module named Columbus in its payload bay. The 23-foot-long, 15-foot-wide lab, which will support biology and physics experiments in space, is Europe's major contribution to the space station.
Scores of European scientists and politicians gathered at Kennedy for the much-awaited event. They celebrated the launch with Belgian and French chocolates, as well as grape juice, a substitute for champagne in keeping with NASA's rules against alcohol.
"It's not very European," joked Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, as he poured juice into wine glasses.
"This is one of the more significant shuttle launches we'll ever have," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. "It brings to the space station truly international participation. It shows this is a real partnership among nations."
The launch appeared to go smoothly, although cameras on the ground and on the spacecraft saw three possible incidents of ice or insulating foam flaking off the external fuel tank.
Debris has assumed greater importance since the shuttle Columbia was destroyed by a piece of foam hitting its left wing in 2003.
The final verdict on the health of the shuttle won't be rendered for several days, after Atlantis docks Saturday at the space station.
But the early analysis raised no concerns, officials said. "There wasn't anything in the imagery that we didn't think we could explain or haven't seen before," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
After several years of study, NASA engineers have concluded that flaking foam is dangerous only during a narrow window of time, when the launch speed and the thickness of the atmosphere combine to accelerate debris to a destructive level.
