Shuttle Atlantis launches European space lab

The old shuttle keeps on truckin -

Shuttle Atlantis launches with European space lab - Yahoo! News UK:
"CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from its Florida home port on Thursday on a mission to deliver Europe's first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.
Clouds and rain near the Kennedy Space Center that had threatened to delay the launch held off long enough for the shuttle to roar off its seaside launch pad at 7:45 p.m. British time. The spacecraft settled into Earth's orbit eight minutes later.
The launch finally put Europe's $1.9 billion (979 million pound) Columbus laboratory into orbit after postponements dating back to 2002 -- first because of Russian delays in launching the space station's service module and then by the destruction of shuttle Columbia in 2003, which grounded the U.S. shuttle fleet.
Atlantis' mission was twice delayed in December by technical problems with an emergency engine cutoff system.
Twenty-three feet long and nearly 15 feet in diameter, the cylindrical Columbus lab has room for three crew members to work on experiments. It was launched with a biolab for cell and tissue studies and an experiment to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

The European Space Agency is counting on Columbus' successful deployment and the March 8 launch of a cargo ship to proceed with future space programs, including participation in NASA's plan to return humans to the surface of the moon.

Atlantis also carried two European astronauts -- French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts, 50, who will oversee the setup and activation of Columbus, and Hans Schlegel, 56, a physicist with the European Space Agency from Aachen, Germany."