CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's
space shuttle Endeavour is on track to light the predawn Florida sky ablaze early
Tuesday as it rockets toward the International Space Station (ISS) with seven
astronauts on board.
Led by commander Dominic
Gorie, Endeavour's
STS-123 crew will install the first piece of Japan's three-part Kibo
laboratory, assemble a monstrous, two-armed Canadian robot and deliver a suite
of on-orbit experiments during their mission. The shuttle is
counting down toward a planned 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) launch on Tuesday from
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Gorie and his crew plan to spend
16 days executing their mission, which is the longest
space station-bound flight NASA has ever concocted. And with no less than
five spacewalks on tap, the astronauts consider their mission as one of the most
intense and exhilarating, too.
"If you go to a
drawing board and describe an exciting mission from scratch, I think you'd end
up with STS-123," Gorie said. "We've got everything on this mission
that you could imagine."
Joining the veteran
spaceflyer aboard Endeavour will be pilot Gregory H. Johnson, mission
specialists Robert Behnken, Mike Foreman, Rick Linnehan and JAXA astronaut
Takao Doi. Rookie spaceflyer Garrett Reisman will stay behind as a member of
the Expedition 16 space station crew, allowing European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut
Leopold Eyharts to return home.
A successful launch will
mark the second space station assembly mission of 2008, as well as the second of
up to six NASA shuttle missions planned for the year.
Clear skies?
Endeavour has a 90 percent
chance of favorable weather conditions at launch time, with the potential for
thick clouds posing the only threat, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Pat Barrett,
NASA's shuttle weather officer with the 45th Weather Squadron, in a Sunday
briefing.
"We are expecting
favorable conditions for launch. The only concern we have is a slight chance of
seeing some low-level clouds moving into the area from ... the Atlantic," Barrett
said, adding that cloud cover can interfere with tracking the 100-ton orbiter
as it speeds to more than 17,500 mph (28,200 kph) during the trip to space.
If all goes as planned,
Endeavour will be the second shuttle to launch in darkness since the 2003
Columbia tragedy, and the 30th total night launch, following the shuttle Discovery's
December 2006 liftoff.
Shot in the dark
Darkness can be dangerous
because technicians have a tough time spotting errant chunks of ice or
insulating foam that can shed from an orbiter's 15-story fuel tank — debris
which can damage the heat-resistant underbelly of a space shuttle.
But LeRoy Cain, chair of NASA's
mission management team, said the agency has addressed these risks by improving
the external fuel tank and adding extra cameras to the launch vehicle.
"We feel very
comfortable to go fly at night," Cain told reporters during a Sunday
briefing. One of the new improvements flying aboard Endeavour is a flash
unit for a belly-mounted camera to help photograph the shuttle's fuel tank after
separation.
"This will be the
first time that we've flown that," Cain said, noting that it should put on
quite a show when Endeavour sheds its orange fuel tank high above the Earth. "You
can expect to see some pretty brilliant flashes in a sequence [in video
footage] after we have physical separation from the external tank."
International cargo
Shortly after reaching the
space station some 212 miles (340 kilometers) above the Earth, the crew will
deliver the cylindrical Japanese Logistics Pressurized (JLP) module.
"Japanese people have
been waiting a very long, long time," Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, ISS program
manager for JAXA, said of the JLP's launch and delivery to the space station.
"It will be an unforgettable event."
Two days after Japan's
first orbital room is stowed in a temporary berth at the space station, spacewalkers
Linnehan, Foreman and Behnken will piece together Dextre — the Canadian Space
Agency's (CSA) maintenance robot that weighs more than 3,440 pounds (1,560
kilograms).
The giant robot, often
personified by the STS-123 crew as "Mr. Dextre," will have an arm
span of about 30 feet (9 meters) and stand 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall. By
guiding highly precise "hands" from inside the space station, astronauts
can perform basic space station maintenance without having to venture into the
unforgiving space environment outside.
"As spacewalkers, we
don't want to put ourselves out of the job," Foreman said of the robot's
abilities. "But I think ... Dextre will be a boon to the space station when
it gets built and put into work."
If the shuttle's Tuesday
morning launch attempt is foiled, NASA will try again no earlier than 2:02 a.m.
EDT (0602 GMT) on Wednesday with a less encouraging 70 percent chance of
liftoff. Clouds may botch a second attempt, with the added threat of rain
showers, shuttle weather officials said. Should further delay be required,
Endeavour would stand down until after March 15 to allow an unmanned Delta 2
rocket to launch a navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station.
Endeavour is scheduled to return
to Earth on March 26 at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT March 27) at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA will broadcast the
launch of Atlantis' STS-123 mission live on NASA TV beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT
(0130 March 11 GMT). Click here
for SPACE.com's STS-123 mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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