Space Shuttle With a Science Laboratory LauchedSpace shuttle Atlantis blasted off Wednesday with the most expensive and pivotal piece of the international space station: a $1.4 billion science laboratory.Atlantis and its crew of five soared into a clear sky at 6:13 p.m., with a rising full moon in the background and the setting sun turning the exhaust trail a beautiful gold and peach. The future of the space station, Alpha, is riding on the 11-day mission, three weeks late because of the need to inspect wiring on the shuttle's boosters. NASA's Destiny laboratory is the first of at least three research modules planned for the station. It is so expensive that the space agency could not afford to build a backup. If the lab is damaged or destroyed in flight, the space station will be set back for years. The Destiny laboratory ¡ª 28 feet long, 14 feet in diameter and more than 30,000 pounds ¡ª is made up of 415,000 parts and 26 miles of wiring. It is loaded with 13 computers, with one more to be added on the next shuttle visit. Without Destiny, astronauts and cosmonauts cannot do any major science work aboard the space station. No experiments are flying aboard the lab because the shuttle cannot handle the additional weight; the first one is due to arrive in March. At the moment of Atlantis' liftoff, the space station and its three residents were soaring more than 220 miles above the North Atlantic just east of Newfoundland. Atlantis should catch up on Friday. |
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