 Good evening. We begin NASA television coverage of mission STS-79 here at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We are just hours away from NASA's 79th space shuttle launch and the 17th flight of the Orbiter Atlantis with a crew of six astronauts. Lift off is planned at 4.54 a.m. Eastern daylight time. The window extends until 5.01 a.m. today. The weather conditions are holding steady. Looks like we've got a 70% chance of having acceptable conditions for launch time. Launch Pad 39A is the stage for the 79th shuttle launch. All countdown events are on schedule and the launch team here in Fireroom 1 is not tracking any technical issues that would preclude an on-time lift off. Countdown clock is at T-minus three hours and holding. We're in a standard built-in hold at this point. This is a planned two-hour built-in hold. At this time, the final inspection team is surveying for any ice that may have formed on the vehicle measuring various elements of the STS-79 vehicle stack. We've now got the STS-79 astronauts having their lunch at the crew quarters. We've got Mission Specialist Jay Apt. Light crew is in their suits. They've been up since about 6 p.m. We've got Pilot Terry Wilkut, Commander Bill Reedy. Crew looks wide awake. Mission Specialist Tom Akers, Mission Specialist Carl Walls, and Mission Specialist John Blaha. We've got a veteran shuttle astronaut crew today. John getting ready to start his four-month stay on the Mir space station. As is the tradition, we've got the cake at the table with the insignia for STS-79. We do have the flight crew members for STS-79 getting strapped in, actually getting their suits on. Got Commander Bill Reedy. He's making his third flight today. He has overall responsibility for commanding the flight. He will become the fourth shuttle commander to dock with the Russian space station. Pilot Terry Wilkut. He will assist Reedy at the flight controls. He's making his second flight today. He will assist in transferring logistics to and from the Mir station. He will also assist Commander Reedy in the fly around of the station after the undocking. We've got Dr. Jay Apt ready to go today. He's Mission Specialist 1 making his fourth flight. He will be involved in activities and experiments aboard the space hub. Mission Specialist Tom Akers, who is also the flight engineer. He will assist the commander and pilot with the Ascent and Reentry checklist and monitoring all the vehicle systems. He's making his fourth flight today. And here we have Mission Specialist John Blaha getting his flights tested. He's making his fifth flight today. Getting ready to embark on his four-month stay aboard the Mir space station, where he will be involved in scientific investigations. And we've got Mission Specialist Carl Walls getting ready. He's waving ready for launch today. He is making his third flight today. This is Shuttle Launch Control. We've got pictures now of the flight crew walking down the hall toward the elevator at their crew quarters. Jay Apt, Carl Walls, Tom Akers, Shannon Lucer. Good morning, John. We read you loud and clear, homie. So now you're loud and clear. Hope you have a great stay up there. And please tell Shannon High when you see her for me. I'll do that. And, Atlantis, looks like we've got everything coming together here, but also you guys have a great trip. And we'll see you back here next week. A profile test of the orbiter's aerial services has started. The flight control services are being moved through a pre-programmed pattern to verify they are ready for launch and positioned for launch today. I'd like to see that from last minute on, no unexpected errors. Thank you, John. 11, T-minus 10, 9, 8. We have a go for engine start. 1, we have booster ignition and liftoff of Atlantis on the fourth flight to dock with the Russian space station. Houston now controlling. Houston, let us roll complete. Roger, roll, Atlantis. And your MPS H2 out message is a deucer only, no action. The roll maneuver is complete. Aborted, Atlantis, the vehicle is now in a heads down position on course for a 51.6 degree, 160 nautical mile orbit. Atlantis' velocity is approaching 900 miles per hour. The vehicle is already 2 and 1 half miles down range from the launch site at an altitude of 6.6 miles. Atlantis, Houston, go at throttle up. Copy, go at throttle up. One minute, 25 seconds into the flight, the three liquid fueled engines are now back at full throttle. About 35 seconds away now from burnout and separation of the twin solid rocket boosters aboard the orbiter, Atlantis is 12 and a half miles down range from the launch site, current altitude 18 miles, traveling 2,300 miles per hour. The hydraulic systems, all three of those APUs, auxiliary power units are in good shape as are the electricity producing fuel cells, standing by for SRB separation. SRB separation is confirmed two minutes, 15 seconds into the flight. Atlantis, Houston, Reed, you have a nominal MECO, no Homes 1 required. Copy, nominal MECO, no Homes 1 required. And you can pass along to the mayor that the Atlantis is under way. Atlantis, Houston, Reed, I've got a big picture update for you. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, Reed, since you guys took some soup up there with you, obviously you've got us working down here, but we have APU number two as an unexplained shutdown. We're looking into the data on it, and we're also looking at the APU one and APU three capabilities and their impact on mission duration. We are currently evaluating both a flight day three and a flight day four rendezvous. If we do a flight day three rendezvous, the approximate take will be two hours and 56 minutes. If we do a flight day four rendezvous, the approximate take will be three hours and 40 minutes. We're working both right now, and we will provide you with further updates. Okay, Bill, we copied it all, and we kind of figured as much. We'll switch now to mission control corleaf outside of Moscow for an update on activities in Moscow since Atlantis' launch. This is mission control corleaf at about 3 p.m. Moscow time. Roughly a few minutes after the launch of Atlantis today at about 1.20 p.m. Moscow time, the mission control center here conducted another communication session with the crew onboard Mir. The first order of business for that communication session is for NASA's Mir Operations Lead, Bill Gersten-Mair, was to tell Shannon Lucida to be a status of Atlantis. Shannon, how do you copy? Oh, I thought you were loud and clear. Hey, I saw the shuttle launch. You saw the shuttle launch? I thought afterwards, I mean, you'll see it. Wow, that's great. We had a really good launch. Everything looks clean, normal performance through MECO. They're working their fuel cell to problem, but that's all. Everything else looks clean on the vehicle. That sounds great. Well, just keep us informed because, you know, it's not here and there's no open hatch. We understand and the only thing we're working out is the fuel cell to problem, but everything else looks clean and we'll keep you informed. Okay, I mean, it's just one small step. Okay, well, we're getting there. At launch time, Mir was moving towards Central America on the sending node of its sixth orbit of the day. Coordination activities between the control center here and the control center in Houston will move into high gear over the next few days as both the US and Russian teams will pair for the docking later this week. Besides the science team, a small consulting team is here from Houston for the mission. This team consists of both orbiter and systems, orbiter systems and time-lining experts. Their job is to facilitate the flow of communications between Russia and the US. And until docking updates regarding Atlantis' progress will continue to be passed to the crew waiting on Mir. This is Mission Control, Corlough.