CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, June 8 (AFP) Jun 09, 2007

The US space shuttle Atlantis successfully blasted off Friday from the Kennedy Space Center for a mission to the orbiting International Space Station, the first shuttle mission of 2007.

The shuttle lifted off into a clear blue sky at 7:38 p.m. (2338 GMT) as scheduled. The rocket boosters separated from the orbiter about two minutes later, and the space craft reached orbit over Earth less than nine minutes after liftoff, NASA televison reported.

"Everything continuing to go very smoothly," said NASA launch commentator George Diller three minutes into the flight.

During their 11-day trip the seven Atlantis astronauts plan to install a new, 16-tonne truss segment on the ISS and deliver a third set of solar panels, as well as batteries for the orbiting laboratory.

Three spacewalks lasting six-and-a-half hours each are planned on the fourth, sixth and eighth days of the mission.

"It took us a while to get to this point but the ship is in great shape," said launch director Mike Leinbach during the countdown to lift off.

He was full of praise after Atlantis blasted off. "The team did a super job," he said.

The shuttle blastoff had been originally scheduled for March 15, but was delayed after after hail from a freak February storm damaged the shuttle's external fuel tank as it sat on the launch pad. The damaged forced NASA to bring the shuttle back to its hangar for repairs.

The Atlantis mission is the fifth shuttle trip since the Columbia tragedy of February 2003, when the orbiter disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere, killing its seven astronauts.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials plan at least 13 more shuttle missions to finish the 100-billion-dollar station by 2010, when the US space agency retires its three-shuttle fleet.

The weather Friday posed no major problem, even though the area frequently sees afternoon thunderstorms.

The Atlantis mission is led by Commander Frederick Sturckow, 45, a marine colonel, who will be joined in the cockpit by co-pilot Lee Archambault, 46, an air force colonel.

The crew includes mission specialists James Reilly, 53, Patrick Forrester, 50, Steven Swanson, 46, and John Olivas, 42.

The seventh passenger, Clayton Anderson, 48, will stay behind at the ISS for a four-month mission while Atlantis brings back to Earth flight engineer Sunita Williams, who has been working at the space station since December.

Source: Space Daily