The Kennedy space centre is again ready to witness the launching of space shuttle Endeavour. After the Columbia disaster in February 2003, in which NASA lost it’s all seven crew members, NASA responded by grounding all shuttles for two and half years.
The crew includes Commander Scott Kelly, pilot Charles Hobaugh, mission specialist Tracy Cadwell, Richard Mastracchio, Dafydd Williams, Barbara Morgan, and B. Alvin drew.
The crew of STS-118 arrived at Florida space center on Monday to complete their final training run before liftoff.
The US space shuttle was rolled out to its launch pad 39A on the eastern coast of Florida on Wednesday.
Endeavour is scheduled to lift off on 7 August on an 11-day STS-118 mission to the International Space Station with a crew including seven members under the command of Scott Kelly. Among seven crewmembers, Dave William is expected to perform three space walks during which he will fix a gyroscope on the station to replace one that failed.
Endeavour mission is particularly aimed at expanding repair and supply in the space center. This time it will carry a short truss that will allow the next mission to bring up the final solar array in order to give four sets of solar wings and power generating capacity.
Endeavour went an intense overhauling and now features brand new filters and seals and 1,900 thermal blankets in order to reduce the acoustics at the time of its blast off.
Endeavour has been prepared to deliver more than two tons of cargo to the station. Furthermore, crew also includes NASA’s first educator astronaut Barbara Morgan, who is linked with NASA for more than 20 years. She will teach and provide information in three schools while in space if the program extends to 14 days from 11.
Image Credit: Space
Via: Reuters
