Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off
Updated on 07 February 2008
Atlantis has lifted off on a mission to deliver Europe's first full-time orbital research complex to the International Space Station.
The Nasa space shuttle's mission was twice delayed in December by technical problems with an emergency engine cutoff system.
The shuttle, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is carrying Columbus - Europe's first permanent space lab - into orbit, where astronauts will attach it to the space station.
Columbus has enough room for three crew members, who will carry out cell and tissue studies and an experiment to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body.
The European Space Agency has been waiting for the delivery of the lab since 2002.
It was first postponed by Russian delays launching the space station's service module, then by the 2003 destruction of space shuttle Columbia, which grounded the shuttle fleet for two-and-a-half years.
Nasa plans to quickly follow Columbus' launch with the first flight for Japan's Kibo complex.
The agency has 13 remaining missions on the shuttle's roster before the fleet is retired in 2010.
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