APOD #4 on Atlantis to Orbit

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is lifting off to restart construction on the ISS. It travels much faster than an airplane. It's a lot heavier than the Statue of Liberty. Pictured here on the morning of September 9th, 2006, it weighed 2 million tons before launch. It orbits the Earth above the atmosphere, where it can free fall in space without falling back to Earth (due to air resistance).

On a side note, rockets are launched from Earth about once a week.