CAPE CANAVERAL -- When the space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from Florida next week, a camera mounted atop the large, orange fuel tank will beam back a shuttle's eye view of a launch for the first time.

Not even the astronauts, restricted to small windows on one of two crew decks used during liftoff, will have such a panoramic view of the 8 1/2-minute climb into orbit -- with the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral rapidly receding into the distance and the surface of the earth appearing more curved by the minute.

After the fuel tank is jettisoned, the camera may catch a glimpse of Atlantis as it sails away on its 11-day construction mission to the international space station.

Lift-off is scheduled for Oct. 2 between 2 P.M.

and 6 P.M.

(1800 GMT and 2200 GMT). For security reasons, NASA will not announce the exact time until 24 hours before launch. The idea of the camera is rooted less in science than in what one NASA official described as "the 'wow!' factor." "There may be some engineering value," said Phil Engelauf, Atlantis' lead flight director, but the real motivation "is largely just for the cool video."

Cameras have been mounted on unmanned rockets in the past and that led to putting this camera on Atlantis, a heavier, more powerful vehicle that weighs 4.5 million lbs (2 million kg) as it sits on the pad, Reuters reported.

The new camera view will show ignition flames, liftoff, the separation of the right solid-fuel rocket booster (the left will be obscured by the tank), and the separation of the tank itself, which comes after the main engines have shut down and the astronauts are just experiencing weightlessness.

NASA said no great expense was attached to the camera mount. The equipment is largely off the shelf, and the camera itself is similar to those "you see looking out the back of race cars," Engelauf said.

The shuttle's mission is to deliver a 15-ton truss segment to the orbiting space station. During three spacewalks, astronauts will connect it to the expanding "backbone" of the station, which will some day support an array of solar-power panels and international science modules.

The space station is a partnership of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Completion of the basic structure is scheduled for 2004.