WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- NASA senior managers expressed their pride in Space Shuttle Atlantis' successful liftoff. "The launch was flawless and Atlantis is safely in orbit", NASA announced Friday at the post-launch press conference.

    Shuttle Atlantis, with seven astronauts aboard, roared off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center into a clear blue Florida sky at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT) on Friday.

    "It was a beautiful night for a launch," said NASA launch director Mike Leinbach. "I'm just very proud to be part of this team."

    "The team really performed well," said Rex Geveden, NASA associate administrator. "And it's a really good day for NASA and for this nation's Space Program."

    Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations stated that the launch of STS-117 is the first step of a challenging mission and although there are many challenges ahead, this was a great start to the launch year.

    After the culmination of many months of hard work from the damaging hail storm that struck Kennedy Space Center late in February, "The external tank has performed in a magnificent manner," said Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale.

    The preliminary reports from the cameras that took images of the external tank during liftoff showed no foam loss prior to solid rocket booster separation.

    "This bodes well for the future as we look forward to the completion of the space station," Hale said.

    During the 11-day mission, Atlantis crew will add a new structural component to the station, deploy a new set of solar arrays and retract an existing array. Similar construction work was conducted on the previous two shuttle missions.