LeRoy E. Cain, NASA manager of Launch Integration, center and other NASA mission managers, monitor the countdown to launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from firing room four of the NASA Kennedy Space Center, Monday, Nov. 16, 2009, Cape Canaveral, Fla. Space shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew began the 11-day STS-129 mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle will transport spare hardware to the outpost and return a station crew member who spent more than two months in space.