THE public will be able to watch a piece of history unfold today when the CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory screens live the last take-off of the space shuttle.

AS YOU read, Space Shuttle Atlantis stands on Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, its black nose pointed towards the heavens, one last mission beckoning.

Two spacewalking astronauts attached the last pieces of scientific equipment to the outside of the space station’s new lab today and packed away a broken gyroscope for next week’s return journey home.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its astronauts delivered a sparkling new lab to the international space station, but had to delay installing it by a day because of a crew member’s medical problem.