40,000 watch as Atlantis lifts off for final voyage

SPACE shuttle Atlantis has lifted off on its final voyage, carrying an experienced crew of six and a full shipment of space station gear.

Atlantis sped through a clear afternoon sky above Cape Canaveral in Florida, blazing a trail over the Atlantic before huge crowds.

Its destination is the International Space Station, which was soaring over the South Pacific at the time of lift-off. The shuttle should catch up with the orbiting complex and its six residents on Sunday.

More than 40,000 guests – the biggest launch-day crowd in years – descended on the Kennedy Space Centre and the roads leading into it, all of them eager to witness Atlantis’ last launch.

“Good luck, godspeed and have a little fun up there,” launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before lift-off.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll take her out of the barn and make a few more laps around the planet,” replied commander Kenneth Ham.

The astronauts could not resist a little humour before they got down to business. They showed up for their steak and cheeseburger breakfast wearing blue and black smoking jackets, white shirts and black bow ties.

The only concern during today’s countdown involved a small ball bearing found in Atlantis’ payload bay earlier this week.

Engineers scrambled to determine the bearing probably came from a spacewalk camera, and cleared the launch with just minutes remaining.

The 12-day mission is the last one for Atlantis. Only two flights remain after this one, by Discovery and Endeavour. Nasa plans to end the 30-year programme by the end of this year.

Atlantis rocketed into orbit for the first time in 1985.

The shuttle is loaded with fresh batteries and a Russian-built compartment for the space station.

The 20ft-long module is crammed with food, laptop computers and other US supplies, part of the deal worked out between the two countries’ space agencies.

Ham and his men will install the compartment on the space station, and carry out three spacewalks to replace six old batteries and hook up an antenna and other spare parts.