Space Shuttle Endeavour Cleared for Nov. 14 Launch

The space shuttle Endeavour is set for a Nov. 14 launch toward the International Space Station, where astronauts hope to deliver new gear that will prime the orbital outpost for double-sized crews, top NASA officials announced late Thursday.

Endeavour is slated to rocket toward the space station at 7:55 p.m. EST (0055 Nov. 15 GMT) on a 15-day mission to deliver a new crewmember and equipment that will help boost the outpost up to six-person crews. The spaceflight will mark NASA?s fourth shuttle flight of the year, the most since 2002.

?We?re in very good shape to go fly,? said NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon in a status briefing. ?We?re really looking forward to getting back into orbit.?

Earlier today, NASA officials also announced a new delay to a separate shuttle mission, the STS-125 flight of the Atlantis orbiter, to launch a seven-astronaut crew on the last service call to the Hubble Space Telescope. That mission was slated to fly in February after a data relay glitch aboard the telescope thwarted plans for an Oct. 14 blast off.

Hubble engineers successfully switched the space telescope to a backup data relay system and, earlier today, released the first new image from the observatory since the Sept. 27 malfunction. But problems with a spare unit NASA hoped to launch aboard Atlantis to fix the ailing system for good will add months of extra checks and tests, mission managers said.

Meanwhile, Endeavour will launch as planned with its own seven-astronaut crew.

Commanded by veteran astronaut Chris Ferguson, Endeavour?s STS-126 crew is slated to blast off from NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., with a payload bay packed with a second space station kitchen, spare bathroom, new sleeping compartments, extra gym equipment and a water recycling system. The new gear is due to be installed and tested over the next few months to allow the station to double its current three-person crew size in mid-2009.

?This is an extremely complicated mission for us,? said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA?s space operations chief.

Ferguson and his crew also plan to perform four spacewalks during the mission, which are primarily aimed at cleaning and greasing up a balky solar array joint on the station?s starboard side. The joint, which has been damaged by bits of metal grit, is one of two designed to spin the station?s outboard U.S.-built solar arrays like paddlewheels so they always face the Sun as the station orbits the Earth.

Set to launch with Ferguson next month are shuttle pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Don Petit, Steve Bowen, Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus. Boe, Bowen and Kimbrough will make their first trips to space during the mission.

Magnus, however, plans a much longer stay in orbit than her crewmates. She will replace fellow NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who launched toward the station last June, as a member of the outpost?s Expedition 18 crew until her own replacement arrives in March.

?When we get six people up there, I think it?s big enough that it still won?t feel very crowded,? Magnus said of helping to double the station?s crew size. ?But this will be very exciting.?

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