A patched-up Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts Friday on the first space shuttle flight of 2007, putting NASA back on track after a run of bad luck and scandal that included a damaging hailstorm and a lurid love triangle. Its big orange fuel tank covered with white blotches where the foam insulation had been repaired, the spaceship rose from its seaside launch pad with a roar and climbed into a clear and still-brightly lit sky at 7:38 p.m. ET, setting a course for the international space station.“See you in a couple weeks,” Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said shortly before lifting off.The countdown was nearly flawless, but it appeared that something fell from the tank more than two minutes into the ascent, several seconds after the solid rocket boosters separated from Atlantis. Falling debris from the tank poses the most danger to the shuttle from liftoff to around that point in the ascent.Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said at a news conference that foam did fall off the tank, as expected, but that it happened too late in the ascent to be a problem.

A preliminary analysis showed it didn’t strike the shuttle, he said.“The tank performed in a magnificent way, despite having several thousand repairs to it,” Hale said. “(The debris) should not be a hazard that late in the flight.”The shuttle smoothly settled into orbit around the Earth.Minutes after launch, Atlantis’ contrails formed an intricate and unusual knot in the Florida sky, framed by the colors of sunset and with the bright light of Venus peeking through. Veteran shuttle watchers oohed and aahed at the second sky show of the night.

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