STS-37 Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104, lifts off from KSC LC Pad

STS-37 Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104, lifts off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex (LC) Pad at 9:22:45:0439 (Eastern Standard Time (EST)). OV-104, atop its external tank (ET) and flanked by its two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), is captured just after space shuttle main engine (SSME) firing and as it rises above the mobile launcher platform. The fixed service structure (FSS) and retracted rotating service structure (RSS) appear along side OV-104. Clouds of exhaust smoke begin to fill the launch pad area.