Status of ATLAS and Expectations for First Physics At The LHC

We report on the status of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Expectations for first data taking in 2008 and the following years are presented. After an overview of the LHC collider commissioning, the ATLAS detector performance in test runs is shown. The physics roadmap starts with early data analyses of Standard Model processes, like the measurement of W and Z production cross-sections at highest pp centre-of-mass energies. Intersting physics with single top and top-pairs including top mass determination are expected as well for the 2009 run. The main purpose of ATLAS is the search for new physics. Already in early data, the sensitivity is high for heavy partners of the vector bosons, W' and Z'. With more luminosity, the Standard Model and supersymmetric Higgs bosons come into reach. Expectations for the discovery in a few inverse femtobarn of data will be shown. Finally, the inclusive search for supersymmetric signatures and the anticipated coverage of the parameter space in mSUGRA and GMSB models are presented.