page_title: STS-117
section_title: 8 June (Flight day 1 – Launch)
hierarchical_section_title: STS-117 / Mission timeline / 8 June (Flight day 1 – Launch)
caption_attribution_description: English: Captured with a remote camera equipped with a special "fish-eye" lens, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member STS-117 crew head toward Earth-orbit and a scheduled link-up with the International Space Station. Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A occurred at 7:38 p.m. (EDT) on June 8, 2007. Onboard are astronauts Rick Sturckow, commander; Lee Archambault, pilot; Jim Reilly, Patrick Forrester, John "Danny" Olivas, Steven Swanson and Clayton Anderson, all mission specialists. Anderson will join Expedition 15 in progress to serve as a flight engineer aboard the station. Atlantis will dock with the orbital outpost on Sunday, June 10, to begin a joint mission that will increase the complex's power generation capability. Using the shuttle and station robotic arms and conducting three scheduled spacewalks, the astronauts will install another set of giant solar array wings on the station and retract another array, preparing it for a future move.
context_page_description: STS-117 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched from pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center on 8 June 2007. Atlantis lifted off from the launch pad at 19:38 EDT. Damage from a hail storm on 26 February 2007 had previously caused the launch to be postponed from an originally-planned launch date of 15 March 2007. The launch of STS-117 marked the 250th orbital human spaceflight.
  Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station the second starboard truss segment and its associated energy systems, including a set of solar arrays. During the course of the mission the crew installed the new truss segment, retracted one set of solar arrays, and unfolded the new set on the starboard side of the station. STS-117 also brought Expedition 15 crewmember Clayton Anderson to the station, and returned with ISS crewmember Sunita Williams.
  On 11 June 2007, NASA mission managers announced a two-day extension of the mission, adding a fourth extra-vehicular activity. These two days were inserted into the mission timeline after flight day 8. This possibility had been discussed prior to launch.
context_section_description: Atlantis was launched on schedule at 23:38:04 UTC from launch pad 39A at the KSC with NASA launch commentator George Diller's words upon launch being "and Liftoff of Space Shuttle Atlantis, to assemble the framework for the science laboratories of tomorrow!". STS-117 was the first launch from launch pad 39A since the fateful STS-107 launch of space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
  All pre-launch processing proceeded normally, and the crew started to board Atlantis at 16:17 EDT (20:17 UTC). Crew boarding was completed at 20:58 UTC, and the hatch was closed at around 21:40 UTC. Weather was 80% go to support the launch. There were concerns about the weather at TAL abort landing sites, but Istres in France changed to go in time for the launch. The conditions at the other available site, Zaragoza, were observed to be improving. The third TAL site, Morón AFB, was closed for runway maintenance until 15 June 2007.
  Powered flight confirmed to the standard timeline (see Space Shuttle – Mission Profile – Launch). Atlantis' eight-and-a-half-minute ride to orbit was mostly uneventful with only one small piece of debris spotted just after solid rocket booster separation two minutes and five seconds after the launch. Shuttle Program Manager, Wayne Hale said a preliminary analysis of launch video "indicates the debris didn't strike the orbiter".
  As Atlantis launched, the space station flew 220 miles (350 km) above the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia. Aboard the ISS, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Oleg Kotov and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams watched the launch of Atlantis on a video feed provided by flight controllers in Houston.
  After reaching orbit, Atlantis' crew began procedures to open the shuttle's payload bay doors and set up computers and other equipment. They also powered up the shuttle's robotic arm to check its operation. Photos taken during the robotic arm checkout showed a 4-inch by 6-inch corner area of insulation blanket on the shuttle's port orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pod pulled away from an adjacent row of heat-shield tiles.
caption: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches at the beginning of STS-117.
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