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There is a ten minute launch window today. If the flight is cancelled, there are further opportunities for take-off on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when the weather should improve.

15:37: We are now within an hour after the scheduled start time for the last flight of the Space Shuttle. There is a built-in hold in the countdown at T-9 minutes, when we will make a last appeal to the launch window, and the shuttle 's flight recorders have switches in preparation for the mission.

At T-9, the NASA test director, a final report launch go / no-go with the survey team and launch director. Then the automatic ground launch sequencer takes over the operations of the shuttle blast-off in preparation.

03:42:

So the launch, so far, is on. We are now within half an hour of take-off, glitches notwithstanding.

The shuttle programme has left us with some extraordinary images and incredible stories. In our audio slideshow, shuttle veterans Piers Sellers and Scott Altman, recall the experience of blasting off and falling around the world in the spacecraft. Altman, you may know, is a former fighter pilot who did most of the stunts in that iconic flick of the 80s: Top Gun.

is much clearer now and moving well. Noticed that my colleague @alokjha has tweeted NASA now saying 50% chance of liftoff, and low level clouds do appear to be dissipating.

Anna Perman

04:15: On NASA 's live blog of Atlantis, some say they are' s Greatest Hits:

The fourth space shuttle orbiter to be built, Atlantis bears the name of the two-masted ship that served as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's primary research vessel from 1930 to 1966. Atlantis was delivered to Kennedy Space Center on April 9, 1985, and launched Oct. 3 of that year to begin its maiden voyage, the STS-51J mission.

Just a few of the vehicle's most noteworthy missions were the first docking with the Russian Mir space station on STS-71 in June 1995; delivery of the Destiny laboratory to the space station on STS-98 in February 2001; the first launch with a camera mounted to the external
Tank that \ the shuttle's ascent into orbit on STS-112 in October 2002 and the last servicing mission to NASA 's Hubble Space Telescope captured on STS-125 May 2009.

04:19:

4.23pm:

We are at T- 2 minutes here.

Readers have been posting their reactions to the launch in comments on this blog:

As a member of the Apollo generation it was quite moving seeing the last shuttle launch... a small tear to the eye witnessing an end of an era.

Loz8188 adds:

Amazing!

As much as I believe the money spent visiting the skies should be put to use fixing our planet first watching the launch is awe-inspiring! Not to mention nerve wracking!

17:03: My colleague

5.09pm:

Richard Luscombe

5.26pm:

05:38: This made Richard Luscombe Cape Canaveral:

More from the postlaunch press conference on the Atlantis launch from Nasa Kennedy:

"The shuttle program has been truly phenomenal."
I look forward 'm, they end up back here at the chapter "

Mike Moses, the launch integration manager for the Space Shuttle program:

"We have quite a lightning strike on the pad yesterday."