Shuttle Atlantis Blasts Off With Full Load of Supplies

The Atlantis, carrying a crew of six (Commander Charlie Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore, and astronauts Leland Melvin, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher and Randy Bresnik, all mission specialists) is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Wednesday. It's carrying 27,000 pounds of equipment and supplies, most of which will be secured outside the ISS on storage platforms for later use.

Only three small pieces of foam insulation were spotted coming off the fuel tank. All came off the external fuel tank too late in the space shuttle launch today to be of any concern, according to NASA.

NASA called the mission the world's first "tweetup." 100 Twittering space fans won front-row seats. The invitees tweeted news of the launch during the liftoff, over cell phones and computers.

This is NASA’s last shuttle flight of the year and one of only six remaining. If all goes as planned, the six astronauts will return to Earth the day after Thanksgiving, in time for Black Friday, bringing home a seventh astronaut, Nicole Stott, who has been living at the ISS since the end of August.