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Monday, 7 October, 2002, 21:30 GMT 22:30 UK
Smart camera captures blast-off
Space shuttle in flight, Nasa TV
Viewers had a unique glimpse of the launch
TV viewers around the world were given a whole new perspective on space shuttle launches on Monday when a camera mounted on an orbiter's external tank fed live pictures of a blast-off back to Earth.

The shuttlecam gave a clear view of the Kennedy Space Center disappearing into the distance for about a minute of the Atlantis shuttle's eight-and-a-half-minute ride into orbit.

Propellant then misted over the lens, obscuring the moments of booster and external tank separation.

Lift-off came at 1546 local time (1946 GMT) after Hurricane Lili, battering the Gulf of Mexico and threatening US space agency (Nasa) mission control in Texas, caused a delay of a week.

The launch also marked the first flight of a shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS) since fuel-line cracks discovered in all of Nasa's orbiters forced the agency to ground its fleet for a repair programme in July.

Atlantis will continue construction work on the ISS, carrying into orbit another large girder, or truss, to extend the platform's backbone.

Heater problem

A problem in a critical water-drainage line had threatened to delay further Monday's launch.

An onboard heater was running at too high a temperature on Sunday, but engineers worked through the weekend to fix the fault.

Atlantis is crewed by two women and four men. The mission is led by Jeffrey Ashby and includes pilot Pamela Melroy, flight engineer Sandra Magnus, astronauts David Wold and Piers Sellers, and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Piers Sellers is the third British-born astronaut to go into space.

Originally from Crowborough in East Sussex, Piers Sellers, 47, is now a US citizen.

He will go on three spacewalks to help fit the truss segment which will be used to lock down new solar arrays on the orbiting platform.

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Watch Nasa smart-cam footage of the blast-off

See also:

08 Oct 02 | Science/Nature
02 Oct 02 | Science/Nature
01 Oct 02 | Science/Nature
05 Aug 02 | Science/Nature
26 Sep 02 | Science/Nature
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