Cape Canaveral, Nov 17 (THAINDIAN NEWS) NASA successfully launched the space shuttle Atlantis on Monday afternoon with the aim of delivering key spare parts in order to prolong the life of the International Space Station and also to bring back one of the scientists there, as this mission will also be the return trip for Nicole Stott to Earth.

This critical STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charles O. Hobaugh and piloted by Barry E. Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert L. Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. However it is the first space trip for Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik.

The shuttle lifted off according to the schedule, at 2:28 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral.

“You’ll see this theme in some of the flights that are going to come after ours as well,” said Brian Smith, the lead space station flight director for the 11-day mission. “This flight is all about spares. Basically, we’re getting them up there while we still can.”

The spare parts carried by this shuttle are for systems that keep the station from overheating or tumbling through space, according to NASA. “We’re taking the big ones,” Smith said. “And not only are they the big ones — they’re the ones deemed most critical. That’s why they’re going up first.”