By
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis and its cargo, a billion-dollar science laboratory, chased after the international space station early yesterday following a spectacular sunset launch.
"We wish you luck as you deliver the heart and soul of the international space station - and have fun," launch director Mike Leinbach told Atlantis' five astronauts.
The setting sun and a rising full moon made for a dramatic send-off Wednesday of NASA's $1.4 billion Destiny laboratory module, the most expensive piece of the space station. Atlantis' exhaust trail was transformed into a beautiful gold and peach, and cast a rainbow-like shadow that seemed to stretch all the way to the moon.
"Awesome," said senior space station scientist Roger Crouch. "That's got to be an omen for how great this thing will be."
The space station, Alpha, was soaring over the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland when Atlantis took off at 6:13 p.m. The shuttle and its crew should catch up to the station today and install the Destiny laboratory tomorrow. Three spacewalks will be needed during the week the shuttle is docked to the station to make all the lab connections.
By midday yesterday, Atlantis was trailing Alpha by less than 1,600 miles and gaining on it with every circling of Earth. In preparation for today's linkup, a garbage-filled supply ship was undocked from the station to make room for the shuttle.
Space station Alpha's three residents learned of the launch as soon as Atlantis reached orbit.
"They're on their way," Mission Control informed station commander Bill Shepherd. Flight controllers beamed up a video of the launch that Shepherd and his Russian crew watched on a laptop computer.
The five shuttle astronauts were thrilled, and relieved, to finally be en route to the station with Destiny. Their mission - years in the making - was delayed three weeks because of the need to inspect wiring on Atlantis' boosters.
"We had a wonderful, wild, exciting ride," shuttle commander Kenneth Cockrell said.
Shuttle managers said the delay and extra work made them savor Atlantis' flawless launch all that much more. The weather ended up cooperating at the overseas emergency landing strips, and a shuttle circuit-board problem resulted in just a two-minute flight delay.
The Destiny laboratory, crammed into Atlantis' payload bay, is the first of at least three research modules planned for space station Alpha. It is so expensive that NASA could not afford to build a backup. If the lab is damaged or destroyed in flight, the station will be set back years.
The lab is 28 feet long, 14 feet in diameter and more than 30,000 pounds. It is made up of 415,000 parts and 26 miles of wiring, and holds 13 computers.
Those computers will enable NASA's Mission Control to take over control of the space station from the Russians, probably within the next month or two.
Destiny also will enable astronauts and cosmonauts to begin major science work aboard the space station, although not for a while. No experiments are flying inside the lab because the shuttle cannot handle the additional weight - the first one is due to arrive in March.
Scientist Crouch expects it will be years - perhaps not until the space station is completed in 2006 - before the laboratory is operating fully.
Experiments will involve fluids, metals, semiconductors, flames, plants and even the astronauts and cosmonauts themselves. NASA wants to learn more about the effects of radiation and weightlessness on the human body before it sends anyone to Mars.
In the meantime, the lab will provide a much-needed fourth room for Alpha's crew, as well as air-cleansing systems, improved radio equipment and the capability to command the entire complex.
NASA already is looking ahead to the next shuttle flight to the space station in just one month. It is hoped that Atlantis' dazzling climb to orbit sets the stage for a busy 2001, said shuttle manager James Halsell Jr.
"That was just one of the most beautiful launches I've certainly ever seen, the way it launched up into the sunset and captured the sun rays," Halsell said. "I think it captured the spirit in our hearts and how we feel about beginning this year."
