Space shuttle Atlantis, carrying a mission commanded by Stephen N. Frick, a 1982 Richland High School graduate, lifted off from the launch pad right on time this afternoon at Kennedy Space Center.

Weather, which had threatened today's launch, cleared just enough for the flight to lift off at 2:45 p.m. Early this afternoon, forecasters had told NASA there was a 60 percent chance that rain and possibly even a severe thunderstorm would keep Atlantis on the pad for another day.

The space shuttle already is two months late in delivering the European lab, Columbus, to the International Space Station. Faulty fuel gauges grounded Atlantis in December. Engineers worked round the clock and through the holidays to fix the problem, which turned out to be a bad connector in the external fuel tank.