Spaceflight Now STS-108


Shuttle Endeavour slated for blastoff November 29
BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: November 15, 2001

  Patch
The crew patch for Endeavour's mission. Photo: NASA
 
Senior NASA officials met Thursday and affirmed plans to launch space shuttle Endeavour on November 29 to ferry a new resident crew and supplies to the international space station.

The traditional Flight Readiness Review concluded with the decision to continue with pre-launch preparations for blastoff of Endeavour from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch window on November 29 extends from 7:39 to 7:49 p.m. EST with a preferred liftoff target of 7:44 p.m. EST.

"Endeavour is ready to fly," Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said.

Engineers, however, are still reviewing corrosion concerns recently raised with the landing gear wheels across the shuttle fleet. Tests will be run over the next two weeks to ensure the corrosion wouldn't endanger the safety of Endeavour during its high-speed landing.

The 11-day mission will deliver the Expedition Four crew of commander Yuri Onufrienko and flight engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch to the orbiting space station for a five-month stay and return to Earth the Expedition Three crew of Frank Culbertson, pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin who have been aloft since August.

This sixth and final shuttle mission of 2001 caps a record-breaking year of missions that completed the first phase of the station's orbital construction.

"In the past 12 months, we've completed some of the most challenging space flights in history, setting records for the number of spacewalks that have been conducted and the amount of hardware we've assembled in orbit," Dittemore said. "In the next year those challenges will continue with missions just as complex to service the Hubble Space Telescope and expand the station. The team continues to excel safely and successfully."

Endeavour will be commanded by Dom Gorie, with pilot Mark Kelly and mission specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani.

Endeavour will also carry the Italian-built Raffaello cargo module loaded with supplies and experiments for the station. During the shuttle's stay at the orbiting complex, one spacewalk is planned by Godwin and Tani to add thermal insulation blankets to mechanisms that rotate the station's solar arrays.

Endeavour is planned to land at 3:05 p.m. EST on December 10 at the Kennedy Space Center.