Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Shuttle Endeavour on its mark for flight

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
http://www.wikio.com
NASA gave shuttle Endeavour a green light Wednesday to blast off June 13.

Its seven astronauts will climb aboard the spaceship today for a launch-day dress rehearsal.

Wearing bright-orange launch-and-entry suits, the astronauts will leave crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center early today, board NASA's sleek silver Astrovan, then make the 12-mile trip to launch pad 39A.

A small green elevator will whisk them up to the 195-foot level of the towering gantry. Then, the astronauts will cross a metal catwalk before boarding the orbiter.

Mission commander Mark "Roman" Polansky said the six-man, one-woman crew is already ready to go.

"It would be great if we could just climb in and go, but I think our families would be a little upset because they're not here," Polansky said.

As it stands, Endeavour and the astronauts are scheduled to launch at 7:17 a.m. June 13 on a mission to deliver the third and final section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility to the International Space Station.

The date and time were firmed up at the conclusion of a daylong flight-readiness review at KSC on Wednesday.

The astronauts will go into quarantine Saturday and return to KSC late Monday.

A three-day launch countdown will begin Wednesday.

"We're getting pretty darn close to kicking this mission off here," Polansky said. "We're excited about the work we're going to do."

Endeavour reaches pad 39A after its transfer from 39B on Sunday. The shuttle is scheduled to blast off at 7:17 a.m. June 13. (NASA)

The astronauts aim to outfit the Kibo science laboratory -- already the largest of four at the station -- with a "front porch" that will serve as an external platform for science experiments that require direct exposure to space.

During five spacewalks -- the most on any station assembly mission to date -- the astronauts also will swap out six $3.6 million nickel-hydrogen batteries that have been storing and providing electrical power for the station since 2000.

The 375-pound batteries measure 40 by 36 by 18 inches.

NASA's 127th shuttle mission will be the 23rd flight of Endeavour and the 28th shuttle mission performed in the assembly of the station since its first two building blocks were linked in low Earth orbit in late 1998.

It is the first of eight remaining station assembly and outfitting missions scheduled to be flown before the shuttle fleet is retired at the end of 2010.

Once the mission is finished, the station will weigh 668,855 pounds and be 84.6 percent complete.

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