CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Jon Cowart is ready to get the monkey off his back - literally and figuratively speaking.
Cowart, a NASA payload manager, has spent the past two years shepherding the $1.38 billion U.S. Destiny lab through final tests here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
NASA's Jon Cowart and the toy monkey. Click to enlarge this NASA TV image.
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For the past two months, he's been carrying around a stuffed animal - a small brown monkey meant to represent the burden involved with preparing the next major piece of NASA's International Space Station for launch.
And he's ready to pass it on to Glenn Chin - the NASA payload manager responsible for readying an Italian-built logistics module now scheduled for launch to the international station on March 8.
"One of the things I look forward to as a mission manager here at KSC is getting the monkey off my back," Cowart, a resident of nearby Titusville, Florida, told reporters Monday."We have among us mission managers out here this monkey. When the previous mission finally lands and it's done, you get the monkey put on top of your door," he said.
Cowart, consequently, has had the monkey on his back since shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth in December after a mission to ferry U.S.-made solar arrays up to the station.
"I have had this since [Endeavour] landed, and I'm looking forward to passing it on to Glenn Chin after me as soon as we get [the lab] activated."
That milestone has been a long time in coming.
The Boeing-built Destiny lab - which will serve as the scientific heart of the international station - arrived here at KSC in November 1998.
Since then, Cowart and a team of KSC payload technicians, engineers and managers have put the lab through more than 800 days of systems tests, leak checks and internal outfitting, among other things.
With the 16-ton lab now nestled snuggly in the cargo bay of shuttle Atlantis, Cowart and his colleagues are anxiously awaiting a launch now scheduled for 6:11 p.m. EST (23:11 GMT) Wednesday.
"Those of us on the lab team are very excited after many, many years to be this close to actually launching this thing," Cowart said. "It's been a long hard-fought battle to get it here, and now we're ready to go."
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