Shuttle Endeavour Launches for Last Time, Headed to Space Station - The space shuttle Endeavour successfully completed its final launch Monday, rocketing away from the Kennedy Space Center launchpad en route to the International Space Station.
Endeavour launched from Launch Pad 39A at 8:56am Eastern.
"I can't thank the teams that got this vehicle ready to fly and for all the work they've done," Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said in a statement, referring to a power problem that delayed the original launch time. "The teams worked really hard to get through that, get it behind and to understand what the problem was—and it was no problem to us at all during the count."
The six STS-134 crew members woke up around midnight to prep for today's launch. They boarded the shuttle at 5:41am Eastern time, and the hatch was closed about 6:56am.
Just after 7am, the close-out crew had to repair a small area of tile around Endeavour's crew hatch. It was apparently a previously repaired area, but team members filled it with slurry, and it did not affect today's flight.
Endeavour's commander is Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in an Arizona shopping mall in January. She has been recuperating in a Houston rehab center, but made the trip to Florida to see the launch. She traveled with astronaut Greg Johnson's family and landed yesterday afternoon.
"Gabrielle & Mark said goodbye during afternoon visit before launch. Beach House made for a picturesque setting," her staff tweeted last night.
In a press conference after the launch, Giffords' staff said she watched the launch seated in a wheelchair for her comfort. It has not yet been decided if she will return for the shuttle landing, given that it will occur in the middle of the night.
Mission specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori will also travel to the ISS via Endeavour for the 16-day mission.
NASA said the shuttle makes orbit 8.5 minutes after liftoff and travels 17,500 miles per hour when in space. Endeavour is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday. Once docked, there are four planned spacewalks, which will take care of various projects on the ISS. The shuttle will return to Earth on June 1 around 2:30am.
Endeavour was initially scheduled to launch on Friday, April 29, but just prior to the scheduled 3:47pm launch, NASA discovered that Endeavour's auxiliary power unit had failed. It was so late in the game that the mission's astronauts were already en route to the shuttle. NASA quickly shut things down, and upon further inspection, discovered a problem with a box of switches that controls power feeds, known as a load control assembly-2 (LCA-2). NASA removed the malfunctioning box last week and replaced it with a new one.
Among the items Endeavour will carry to the ISS is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS). It will be used to measure cosmic rays to gain a better understanding of cosmic radiation; a challenge for long-duration spaceflight. It might also help uncover the mysteries involved in dark matter or missing antimatter, NASA said. The 15,000-pound AMS is expected to be operational for the rest of the station's life; at least 10 years.
This will be Endeavour's 134th and final mission. NASA is scheduled to launch the space shuttle Atlantis at some point next month, after which it will retire its shuttle program. The shuttles, including Discovery and Enterprise, will then be sent to museums in New York, Florida, California, and Virginia. ( pcmag.com)
Endeavour launched from Launch Pad 39A at 8:56am Eastern.
"I can't thank the teams that got this vehicle ready to fly and for all the work they've done," Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said in a statement, referring to a power problem that delayed the original launch time. "The teams worked really hard to get through that, get it behind and to understand what the problem was—and it was no problem to us at all during the count."
The six STS-134 crew members woke up around midnight to prep for today's launch. They boarded the shuttle at 5:41am Eastern time, and the hatch was closed about 6:56am.
Just after 7am, the close-out crew had to repair a small area of tile around Endeavour's crew hatch. It was apparently a previously repaired area, but team members filled it with slurry, and it did not affect today's flight.
Endeavour's commander is Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in an Arizona shopping mall in January. She has been recuperating in a Houston rehab center, but made the trip to Florida to see the launch. She traveled with astronaut Greg Johnson's family and landed yesterday afternoon.
"Gabrielle & Mark said goodbye during afternoon visit before launch. Beach House made for a picturesque setting," her staff tweeted last night.
In a press conference after the launch, Giffords' staff said she watched the launch seated in a wheelchair for her comfort. It has not yet been decided if she will return for the shuttle landing, given that it will occur in the middle of the night.
Mission specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori will also travel to the ISS via Endeavour for the 16-day mission.
NASA said the shuttle makes orbit 8.5 minutes after liftoff and travels 17,500 miles per hour when in space. Endeavour is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday. Once docked, there are four planned spacewalks, which will take care of various projects on the ISS. The shuttle will return to Earth on June 1 around 2:30am.
Endeavour was initially scheduled to launch on Friday, April 29, but just prior to the scheduled 3:47pm launch, NASA discovered that Endeavour's auxiliary power unit had failed. It was so late in the game that the mission's astronauts were already en route to the shuttle. NASA quickly shut things down, and upon further inspection, discovered a problem with a box of switches that controls power feeds, known as a load control assembly-2 (LCA-2). NASA removed the malfunctioning box last week and replaced it with a new one.
Among the items Endeavour will carry to the ISS is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS). It will be used to measure cosmic rays to gain a better understanding of cosmic radiation; a challenge for long-duration spaceflight. It might also help uncover the mysteries involved in dark matter or missing antimatter, NASA said. The 15,000-pound AMS is expected to be operational for the rest of the station's life; at least 10 years.
This will be Endeavour's 134th and final mission. NASA is scheduled to launch the space shuttle Atlantis at some point next month, after which it will retire its shuttle program. The shuttles, including Discovery and Enterprise, will then be sent to museums in New York, Florida, California, and Virginia. ( pcmag.com)
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