First shuttle in 4 months launches

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Atlantis blasted off on the first shuttle flight in four months Monday, with a side-mounted video camera showing the fast-receding coastline and brilliant blue ocean as the spaceship climbed toward orbit.\nThe shuttle rose from its seaside pad under tight post-Sept. 11 security, carrying six astronauts and a 14-ton girder that will be installed on the international space station later this week.\nIt was the first shuttle launch since early June, a delay caused by cracked fuel lines that the grounded the entire fleet.\nThe launch marked the debut of the shuttlecam, a color video camera mounted near the top of Atlantis' external fuel tank. The camera beamed down live images as the shuttle soared out over the Atlantic.\nHurricane Lili added to the delays last week, with the first-ever shutdown of Mission Control and a five-day launch postponement.\nEarlier in the day, engineers managed to work around a heater problem in a water-drainage line aboard Atlantis. The trouble cropped up Sunday in one of three lines used to discharge water produced by Atlantis' electricity-producing fuel cells.\nNASA also had to scramble late in the countdown to replace a couple fuses in a backup power supply on the aging launch platform.\nAlthough it was raining and lightning advisories were in effect as the astronauts headed to the pad early in the afternoon, the sky quickly cleared.\n"Atlantis is ready for you," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before liftoff. "The weather is beautiful, and you guys have been in Florida far too long. So we wish you luck."\nNASA activated the camera 15 minutes before liftoff and televised a picture of the shuttle on the pad, ready to go.\nThe Air Force chased after at least six stray planes. Fighter jets patrolled the wide no-fly zone around the pad, to guard against a possible terrorist attack.\nAtlantis should have flown in August but was sidelined by hairline cracks in the pipes that carry hydrogen fuel to the main engines. Similar damage turned up in all four space shuttles, and NASA ordered unprecedented welding repairs.\nThen cracks showed up in the Apollo-era platforms needed to haul the shuttles from the hangar to the pad. The marred bearings had to be replaced before Atlantis could make the four-mile trip.\nThe space station and its three occupants were soaring 240 miles above the Pacific, west of the Galapagos Islands, when Atlantis finally took off at 3:46 p.m. The shuttle should reach the orbiting outpost on Wednesday with goodie bags of apples, oranges, grapefruit, garlic, onions, hot sauce and a pecan pie.\nAstronaut Peggy Whitson, the lone American aboard the space station, is tired of eating out of cans after four months in orbit and put in an order for fresh and spicy food. She has one month remaining in her mission.\nDuring their week at the space station, Atlantis' astronauts will conduct three spacewalks to hook up the $390 million girder. It measures 45 feet long and 15 feet wide and is crammed with wiring, plumbing, three radiators and a railroad cart.\nThe structure will be attached to a girder that was delivered by another shuttle crew earlier this year. Yet another girder will be launched next month.\nThis aluminum framework eventually will stretch longer than a football field and support giant solar wings and other equipment. Extra solar power will be needed to run European and Japanese laboratories, once they are launched.