Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Thursday afternoon from the Kennedy Space Center, beginning an 11-day mission to the International Space Station.

The 2:47 p.m. launch came despite some developing storms in the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. National Aeronautics and Space Administration meteorologists said none of the storms violated NASA's strict flight rules for weather conditions, including limits on cloud height, storms in the area and clouds that might produce lightning.

The criteria are set, in part, by conditions a shuttle crew would need if they had to make an emergency landing soon after liftoff.

NASA astronaut Steve Frick is commanding a crew of six, including Pilot Alan Poindexter and astronauts Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love and the European Space Agency's Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts. It is the first spaceflight for Poindexter, Love and Melvin.

Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani, who arrived at the station in October, will return to Earth with the Atlantis crew as Eyharts takes his place on the space station.

During the 11-day mission, the crew's prime objective will be to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the space station, adding to the station's size and capabilities.