GEORGE DILLER: T-minus Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Three main engines up and burning.
Two. One and liftoff of Space Shuttle Atlantis, opening a new chapter in the completion
of the International Space Station for the collaboration of nations in space.
HOUSTON: Roger, roll, Atlantis.
Houston is now controlling. Roll maneuver is under way. Atlantis is heading into a head-down position,
on course for a 51.6-degree, 137-by-36 statute-mile orbit.
Atlantis already two miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center at an altitude of 2.8 statute miles.
Engines now at 72 percent, beginning to throttle back up as the vehicle passes through the area
of maximum dynamic pressure. Atlantis, Houston, go at throttle up.
ATLANTIS: Copy, go at throttle up.
HOUSTON: All three liquid-fueled engines are back at full throttle. One minute, 20 seconds into the flight.
At liftoff, the fully fueled shuttle, boosters and external tank weighed about four-and-a-half million pounds.
It now has burned half of that weight in propellant.