Laboratory sent out into space

CAPE CANAVERAL - Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off yesterday with the most expensive and pivotal piece of the international space station: a $1.4 billion science laboratory.

Atlantis and its crew of five soared into a clear sky at 6:13 p.m., with a rising full moon in the background and the setting sun turning the exhaust trail a beautiful gold and peach.

The future of the space station, Alpha, is riding on the 11-day mission, three weeks late because of wiring inspections on the shuttle's boosters.

NASA's Destiny laboratory is the first of at least three research modules planned for the station. It is so expensive that the space agency could not afford to build a backup. If the lab is damaged or destroyed in flight, the space station will be set back for years.

"That's our crown jewel," said Mark Stephenson, a space station program director for Boeing, the prime contractor.

At the moment of Atlantis' liftoff, the space station and its three residents were soaring more than 220 miles above the North Atlantic just east of Newfoundland. Atlantis should catch up on Friday.

Until the very last hour, NASA feared rain and clouds at the overseas emergency landing strips might force a delay. But the weather in Spain and Morocco improved, clearing the way for the flight. A last-minute problem with a circuit board also went away.

The Destiny laboratory - 28 feet long, 14 feet in diameter and more than 30,000 pounds - is made up of 415,000 parts and 26 miles of wiring. It is loaded with 13 computers, with one more to be added on the next shuttle visit.

Without Destiny, astronauts and cosmonauts cannot do any major science work aboard the space station. No experiments are flying aboard the lab because the shuttle cannot handle the additional weight; the first one is due to arrive in March.

Destiny and its computers will enable NASA's Mission Control to take over control of the space station from the Russians.