HOUSTON -- With
less than a month remaining before their planned launch into orbit, seven astronauts—including
teacher-turned spaceflyer Barbara Morgan—are eager to reach space aboard NASA's
shuttle Endeavour.
The shuttle's
STS-118
astronaut crew, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Scott Kelly, is due to
rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS) on Aug. 7 to continue
construction of the half-finished orbital laboratory.
"It's a
really great day for us to be a little less than a month from flight," Kelly
said during a Wednesday briefing here at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "All of
us have been working a very long time to get to this point, some of us longer
than others."
Morgan, in
fact, has been
working for 22 years to reach space after NASA first selected her to serve
as backup to Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and six astronauts
died during the 1986
Challenger accident, after which Morgan eventually returned to teaching
elementary school in McCall, Idaho before returning to NASA in 1998 as the
first educator astronaut.
"That's
what defines teachers is perseverance and patience, and so I'm just doing the
job of a teacher," Morgan told reporters Wednesday. "I believe in my heart that
space exploration is key for all of us, especially for our young people to keep
their futures open-ended."
Joining Kelly
and Morgan aboard Endeavour during their potentially 14-day mission will be
shuttle pilot Charles Hobaugh and mission specialists Rick Mastracchio, Tracy
Caldwell, Alvin Drew and David Williams, who represents the Canadian Space
Agency.
The
astronauts are set to launch aboard a refitted Endeavour, which NASA last flew
in 2002 before pulling the orbiter aside for a scheduled overhaul. The 100-ton
orbiter and its external fuel tank and rocket boosters reached the launch pad
earlier today.
"Endeavour
is far and away probably more prepared that any shuttle that I've seen in my
years of being at NASA," said Hobaugh, a veteran shuttle flyer who first joined
the U.S. astronaut corps in 1996.
Drew, a
first-time flyer, joined Endeavour's STS-118 crew in April to replace Clayton
Anderson after the latter astronaut launched on a NASA's June shuttle mission
to join the station's Expedition 15 crew as a flight engineer.
"My initial
reaction was just plain shock. I'd never heard of anybody being selected for a
mission about three and a half months out prior to launch," said Drew, who was
training to be a spacecraft communicator before his reassignment. "After
that, it was just time to get busy, and there's a lot to do."
Endeavour's
five-man, two-woman astronaut crew will install the $11 million Starboard 5
(S5) spacer truss to the starboard edge of the ISS. The spaceflyers are also
slated to deliver about 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of cargo, replace a
faulty ISS gyroscope, stage up to four spacewalks and perform several activities
to bolster space education.
The success
of a new system designed to allow Endeavour to conserve its own power stores by
siphoning supplies from the ISS will determine whether the shuttle mission is
extended three days longer than its 11-day baseline, NASA has said.
Endeavour's
August STS-118 flight will mark the second of up to four NASA shuttle missions
planned for this year. It comes on the heels of last month's STS-117 mission to
the station and will carry the second round of shuttle astronaut visitors to the orbital
laboratory's Expedition 15 crew.
"We're
looking forward to you guys being in our home," Anderson told shuttle
astronauts from orbit earlier Wednesday during a video broadcast.
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