Space Shuttle Atlantis Launches

NASA mission STS-112 was facing the possibility of another delay, this time due to weather that was threatening to ground the mission, but the Mission Control found a hole in the weather and the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on schedule at 2:45 PM EST on Thursday.

Atlantis carries a crew of seven lead by Navy captain Stephen Frick. The mission is set to deliver the European Space Agency's 10.3-ton Columbus laboratory to the ISS - International Space Station. It will join the U.S. lab, Destiny, that has been in orbit now for about seven years.

The shuttle has faced delays since December due in part to fuel gauge problems that pushed back the launch. To the relief of NASA and the Atlantis crew, the gauge worked properly during the final stage countdown.

NASA was anxious about the mission delays and the possibility of its failure to achieve the six planned missions this year. The agency faces a 2010 deadline to finish the station before retiring the shuttles and that works out to about four to five flights each year between now and then.

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