 Good evening. We begin NASA television coverage of mission STS-76 here at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We're just hours away from NASA's 76th Space Shuttle launch and the 16th flight of the Orbiter Atlantis. There's a crew of six astronauts getting ready to launch aboard the Shuttle Atlantis this morning. The lift-off is planned at 3.13 a.m. Eastern Time. That's the opening of a 7-minute launch window. The window extends until 3.20 a.m. Eastern Time. The weather conditions are very favorable for a lift-off. We've got a 90% chance of having acceptable conditions for a launch. The flight crew is continuing to get ready over in their crew quarters at the operations and checkout building while the launch team here at KSC in the firing room is preparing the vehicle and monitoring systems. We do have two crews out at the pad right now. One is in the white room and inside the vehicle crew module getting things set up and ready. The other is the final inspection team making an assessment of the vehicle and looking at temperatures and assessing the overall vehicle. We do have live pictures of the flight crew. We've got mission specialist Linda Godwin. She'll be one of the space walkers on this flight. Pilot Richard Sirfoss and Commander Kevin Chilton. Chilton will be guiding the Shuttle Atlantis to a smooth docking. Mission specialist Shannon Lucid getting ready to begin her stay on Mir. Mission specialist Ron Saga and mission specialist Rich Clifford who's also serving as the flight engineer for the mission and will be performing the space walk. The crew waving for the camera. Flight crew ready to go. They've been up since 4.30 p.m. They'll be getting into the launch and entry suits about 11.20 p.m. We're currently getting some live coverage of the final inspection team walking around on the top of the mobile launcher platform. Just looking at the aft end of the solid rocket boosters. One of the team members just passed. The team is composed of eight members representing the NASA contractor team. They use a portable infrared scanner. Also they take close up photo documentation of the cryogenic surfaces and doing a lot of data collection to correlate the data. We're standing by to get live coverage of the STS-76 astronauts as they get into their launch and entry suits. And we do have coverage. We've got Commander Kevin Chilton making his third flight today. Just completed the weather briefing with flight directors in Houston. And the weather coordinators there. Going through the traditional suit up. Being assisted with the bulky suit. Chilton will be the third. Will dock with the Russian space station. The third to do that. Got pilot Richard Syrafas making his second flight. He's known as the rendezvous expert. And will be responsible for the undocking of the Mir station and the subsequent fly around. Syrafas will be assisting Chilton at the flight controls in the crew cabin of Atlantis. Mission specialist Ron Sega. He's the payload commander for this mission making his second flight. He's very familiar with the United States Russian cooperative space effort having spent several months in Russia serving as NASA's operations director. At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City just outside of Moscow. Across the room the rest of the crew members are getting assisted with equipment they'll be taking aboard. Mission specialist Shannon Lucid. She's got flying for the fifth time today. She's the first American woman to be launched aboard the Mir station. She'll be staying aboard the Mir for four and a half months. Soon as she arrives on the Mir station she will become part of that team. She'll be staying on Mir for about 143 days until August conducting long duration space research. Mission specialist Rich Clifford. He's also serving as the flight engineer and will be one of the crew members to make a spacewalk. Spacewalk will occur on flight day six. He's also going to be responsible for the space vision system and will be helping transfer supplies and equipment over to the Mir station. Also he'll be assisting the commander and pilot with ascent and reentry checklists and in monitoring vehicle systems as the flight engineer. Mission specialist Linda Godwin. She's making her third flight today. She's going to join Rich Clifford in the spacewalk on flight day six attaching four experiments to the Mir docking module. We've got the STS-76 crew members walking down the hall at the operations and checkout building. Crew getting ready for their nine day flight. Mission specialist Shannon Lucid getting ready for the first flight day staying in space for about four and a half months. Employees wishing the crew well on their trip. And here we have the crew coming out. The STS-76 crew is now aboard the astronaut van. Bob Cabano followed the crew into the van. He'll be getting out at the launch complex 39 area. He is going to be in the weather reconnaissance aircraft that will be staged from the shuttle landing facility. This is a shuttle launch control just past the T-minus two hour accounting mark in our countdown for mission STS-76. As we count down to a 3.13 am launch this morning and mission specialist Shannon Lucid sitting at the hatch waiting her turn to climb aboard the Atlantis. 1, 2, and PF 1, 2, and 3 are in a high copy. Thank you sir. OTCR 13. Go ahead. Step 583 is complete. And tech number? 0955. 0955. Copy team. Can I have a switch step? 583. 583 copy. All over the systems. All systems ready for crew mileage or closeout. I'll select your entity. Go ahead. Launch team is ready to proceed. Copy that. I'll conduct a poll here in just a couple of seconds. This is launch factor on 212 conducting a poll for clear to launch. Payload director? Payload to go, Jim. Copy. Engine and director? Team engineering is go. Copy that. Safety mission assurance? Safety mission assurance is go Jim. Copy, Joe. Range weather? Launch sector we have no constraints to launch. Copy that. Option managers? Jim the MMT has no constraints to clear to launch. Copy. And Atlantis, you guys have a great mission and we'll see you back here at Kennedy in a little better than a week. Thanks very much, Jim. The Spirit of 76 is ready to fly and God bless you and your great launch team that will give us this opportunity to entity launch director your career to launch. Copy. We just heard Shuttle launch director Jim Harrington complete the poll giving the final clear for the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-76. Time out clock to start on my mark. T-minus nine minutes and counting. The launch sequence has been initiated. Looking for an on-time launch of Atlantis at 3.13 a.m. Counting down to the final nine minutes before the launch of Atlantis. Pilot Searfrost will flip switches in the crew module to directly connect the three fuel cells to the essential power buses in the next few minutes. OAA retracts. Got a glimpse of Commander Kevin Chilton waving as the as the access arm was being retracted away. Crew now ready to go as we count down the final seven minutes toward the launch of Atlantis. A profile test of the orbiter error surfaces has started. Flight control surfaces are being moved through a pre-programmed pattern to verify they are ready for launch. Next, the main engines will be gimbled and positioned for launch. The liquid hydrogen tanks now being pressurized for flight. All systems are go for launch at this time just a few minutes away from the 16th voyage of Atlantis with a crew of six. The gaseous oxygen vent hood is being retracted away from the top of the external tank. It's just about time for the Spirit of 76 to wake up the space coast. Have a great flight. Atlantis will be launched on a northerly trajectory and climb 51.6 degrees to the equator. We have a go for engine start. Five, four, three, two, one. Booster ignition and liftoff of Atlantis on the third shuttle mere docking flight. The engines are traveling back now hoping to ease the buildup of aerodynamic loads on the vehicle as Atlantis continues to accelerate rapidly through the dense lower altitudes traveling now over 650 miles per hour. Time 48 seconds. Our systems are performing well. Atlantis is now easing through the period of maximum dynamic pressure and the engines are traveling back up. Atlantis, go ahead and throttle up. Our engines are now running at full throttle. Our systems are performing well. Altitude is now 62,000 feet. Atlantis is traveling over 1,000 miles per hour. Solid rocket booster chamber pressure is beginning to tail off signaling the burnout of the twin boosters. Mission control sees a good separation. Atlantis is now flying free powered by its own main engines. Second stage guidance is now in effect. Altitude now 178,000 feet. Downrange distance 38 miles. Atlantis performance nominal. Atlantis 2 engine tail.