Space shuttle Atlantis returns to space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Space shuttle Atlantis roared into space Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, en route to deliver spare parts to the International Space Station.

The launch occurred at 2:29 p.m. EST, with the external tanks and solid rocket booster developing 7 million pounds of thrust to lift Atlantis from its launch pad.

Commander Charlie Hobaugh is leading the STS-129 mission, with Barry Wilmore serving as pilot. Mission astronauts are Dr. Robert Satcher, Michael Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik are making their first trips into space.

The shuttle's STS-129 mission -- the 31st to the ISS -- will include three spacewalks before Atlantis returns to Earth with space station crew member Nicole Stott aboard. That will make STS-129 the final space shuttle crew rotation flight to or from the space station, with only five space shuttle missions remaining.

NASA said the mission will help the space station build up a supply of replacement parts before the space shuttles are retired.

"You'll see this theme in some of the flights that are going to come after ours as well," said Brian Smith, the lead space station flight director for the mission. "This flight is all about spares -- basically, we're getting them up there while we still can."

NASA said the shuttles are the only vehicles large enough to carry many of the big pieces of equipment into space, so several of the remaining flights are devoted to the task. This is the first of those flights, NASA said, so it has dedicated it to taking up the largest spares and those of the highest priority, such as a space gyroscope.

"We're taking the big ones," Smith said. "And not only are they the big ones – they're the ones deemed most critical. That's why they're going up first."