Cape Canaveral, Fla. ? Atlantis blasted off on the first shuttle flight in four months Monday, with a side-mounted video camera showing the coastline and the brilliant blue ocean receding fast in the distance as the spaceship climbed toward orbit.

The shuttle rose from its seaside pad under tight post-Sept. 11 security, carrying six astronauts and a 14-ton girder that will be installed on the international space station this week.

It was the first shuttle launch since early June, a long and frustrating delay caused by cracked fuel lines that grounded the entire fleet.

Cracks in the Apollo-era platforms needed to haul the shuttles from the hangar to the pad, Hurricane Lili and a problem with a heater problem in a water-drainage line further delayed the mission.

The launch also marked the debut of the shuttlecam, a color video camera mounted near the top of Atlantis’ external fuel tank. The camera beamed down live images as the shuttle soared out over the Atlantic.

In this image from the External Fuel Tank Camera on the space shuttle Atlantis, the shuttle lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The camera captured several minutes of footage before debris cluttered its view.

Mission Control told Atlantis’ crew that the first two minutes of footage were “nothing short of spectacular.” But the camera picked up debris when the shuttle’s rocket boosters dropped away, and the rest of the pictures were foggy.

The shuttlecam showed the billowing plume of rocket exhaust moments after liftoff, and then the coastline and foamy white waves, and then the cape. TV viewers could make out Atlantis separating from its empty fuel tank eight minutes into the flight.

During their week at the space station, Atlantis’ astronauts will conduct three spacewalks to hook up the $390 million girder. It measures 45 feet long and 15 feet wide and is crammed with wiring, plumbing, three radiators and a railroad cart.