Washington - NASA space shuttle Atlantis launched on Thursday along with the European Space Agency module Columbus.
The Atlantis shuttle took off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday.
Atlantis is bringing the Columbus module to the International Space Station, 220 miles above Earth.
ESA space station manager Alan Thirkettle stated “For the first time we’ll have control of our own spacecraft and our own astronauts from our ground control center in Europe.”
He stated he was happy to see Columbus get off the ground after years of delays and development problems.
Atlantis took off at 2:45 p.m. ET on Thursday after being delayed for two months.
NASA stated they had a 30% chance to launch, but managed to do so as planned.