Atlantis shuttle's United States with six crew finally launched on Monday (16/11) at 14:28 local time, or Tuesday at 02.28 pm from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 11-day Atlantis mission is to extend the use of the international space station (ISS) which will be completed in operation next year.

Atlantis will carry a variety of spare parts. That parts of them to install antennas and oxygen tank. The aircraft commander of Atlantis Charles Hobaugh said, "space station is now a remarkable vehicle. We only need to provide various needs spare parts to maintain continously."

Atlantis will bring back the last crew that space station, Nicole Stott. Extends the use of a space station is one of the recommendations of a panel reviewing the U.S. space program. Barack Obama administration is considering changes in a budget of 18 billion U.S. dollars, about half the cost of which is used for space exploration.

Besides Hobaugh, the rest of the flight crew of Atlantis is a pilot Barry Wilmore, Randy Bresnik flight engineer, along with other astronauts, namely Michael Foreman, Leland Melvin, and Robert Satcher.