The launch, which is due to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS), was delayed after a sensor failed again in an emergency engine cutoff system on Sunday. NASA made its first launch attempt on Thursday.
The Atlantis crew consists of seven astronauts - commander Stephen Frick, pilot Alan Poindexter, mission specialists Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin and Stanley Love plus European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts, Hans Schlegel from German and French national Leopold Eyharts, who will remain on board the ISS replacing American Daniel Tani.
Crew members are due to carry out three spacewalks during the mission installing and activating the $2 billion Columbus space laboratory, which has taken twelve years to set up and will be Europe's first permanent outpost in space.
