Cape Canaveral, Fla. ? Space shuttle Atlantis thundered into orbit Saturday with no obvious damage from debris to worry NASA or the six-member crew as they prepared to resume construction of the international space station for the first time since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

After two weeks of delays from storms and technical glitches, Atlantis rose from its seaside pad through a partly cloudy sky at 11:15 a.m. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin declared the launch “majestic.”

“It was worth the wait, and we’re ready to get to work,” said Atlantis commander Brent Jett.

Jett and his crew now face one of the most challenging tasks in space history. But they also have trained for the mission, initially scheduled for 2003, longer than any crew in the past.

As the crew headed into space Saturday, more than 100 cameras zoomed in for any signs of foam breaking off the shuttle’s external fuel tank, the problem that doomed Columbia.

Early reviews of the video found no glaring damage. NASA’s cameras spotted three possible hits but they came so late that the debris wasn’t moving fast enough to do much damage, shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

“We are looking at nits – nothing of any remote consequence,” Hale said. “Not only am I not alarmed, I’m really at ease after looking through this video.”

In 2003, Columbia’s heat shield was damaged by flyaway foam from its external fuel tank during liftoff, allowing fiery gases to penetrate its wing and tear the shuttle apart as it later re-entered the atmosphere. Since then, NASA has struggled to find ways to prevent the hard foam from breaking away.

Saturday, NASA mostly celebrated shaking off frustration.

“Not everything in the count leading up to this day was easy,” Griffin said. “We had to dodge tropical storms, lightning strikes and things like that.”

There was a slight problem when a freon coolant system didn’t work properly during ascent, but NASA didn’t view it as a major concern. The fuel cells that forced launch delays earlier in the week were working as expected, NASA said.