Space shuttle Atlantis start was postponed for long time because of technical issues. The start is planned for Thursday 7th February 2008 2:45 afternoon eastern standard time (EST), which is 20:45 central European time. Space shuttle flights are now accompanied by many technical problems, or they are more presented.

The interesting thing during launch is the countdown itself. There are two countdown clocks. One displays the real time until expected moment of start. After the start they measure the mission time. The second clock serves to emphasize the important moments of preparations and their sense is to easily show, what was already done. They start at the time of T-43 hours and have several planned holds. In the case of problems they can stop also unplanned. The first planned hold is T-27 hours, which usually lasts for several hours. The countdown is halted until only required personell remain on the launch pad. After T-27 countdown start the filling with fuel begins. The last planned stop is T-9 minutes, during which three independent institutions must judge the readiness to start. They are the Launch Director, the Mission Management Team and the Shuttle Test Director. If all three agree, the countdown continues and the space shuttle is being disconnected from the remaining ground systems. By T-50 seconds it is switched to internal power sources, by T-6.6 seconds the main engine starts, by T-0 the solid fuel side-boosters are fired and the space shuttle launches.

Every mission carries also many souvenirs with. Although they are selected and folded so they don't occupy much space, however after landing they are of high value. The STS-122 mission has on board for example the starting flags for Daytona 500 race, which as NASA celebrates this year 50th anniversary and moreover its track lies just 150 kilometres from Kennedy Space Center on Florida, where the space shuttles are launched. There are also 500 mission pins on board. Also the astronauts themselves can carry their own souvenirs with.