Atlantis blasted off Friday evening from Cape Canaveral. The space shuttle left the launch pad on time at 7:38 pm (2338 GMT as it headed for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station.

The launch was delayed with thre month due to the repairs required after more than 2,000 dents left on the fuel tank by heavy hail in February.

During its first full day in orbit, the STS-117 crew will inspect Space Shuttle Atlantis’ heat shield and prepare for Sunday’s arrival at the International Space Station.

Crew members will use Atlantis’ robotic arm and an orbiter boom extension to check out the spacecraft’s underside, nose cap and leading edges of the wings. The inspections are conducted to see if any damage occurred to the heat shield during the climb to orbit that began when Atlantis lifted off at 7:38 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

In preparation for Sunday’s activities, the crew will extend the shuttle’s docking ring and prepare tools they will use to rendezvous and link up with the station.

The seven-member crew will dock with the International Space Station on Sunday evening. One crew member, Clayton Anderson, will relieve Sunita Williams, who will be coming home on the return flight after serving at the station since December. He will remain on the ISS until October. Williams set a record for time spent on space walks by a woman.

Atlantis' crew will install a new set of solar arrays on the starboard side of the station. These arrays will be a mirror image of those installed on the port side in September, and like the crew that installed the port arrays, the STS-117 crew will be in charge of unfolding the arrays and preparing them to track the sun and generate power.

The new solar panels are to double power at the station by 2010, when construction on the space station is to be finished. Final occupancy is to be expanded to six instead of just three full time residents.