Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on March 11, 2008,
at 2.28 AM local time. Endeavour is carrying equipment
for the International Space Station (ISS).
This is Endeavour's longest mission, that of
16 days, to the ISS and the first
night time launch in two years. Earlier on March 10, 2008,
the external fuel tanks of the Endeavour were filled.
Around 8 minutes after lift
off, Endeavour reached a top speed of
just over 17,000 miles per hour.
Endeavour will take the first part of
a Japanese space lab to the ISS during
the 16-day mission.
Endeavour's seven-man crew will
deliver a storage compartment, the
first part of a Japanese lab, Kibo,
and a Canadian two-armed robot
designed to carry out repairs outside
the orbiting spaceship. Two other
shuttle flights will be required to
deliver all the lab installments. The
Kibo that will cost $2.4bn to build
has been in the works since 1990 but
construction was stalled after the
2003 Columbia tragedy.
Apart from unloading the Japanese lab
component, Endeavour's shuttle crew
will also install the two-armed robot, Dextre. Dextre, which has two
11ft long arms, will be used to fix
components outside the station, and
also repair them. Dextre's arms have
joints that aid movement and the robot
can also pivot at the waist. Dextre
will be able to perform tasks such as
replace batteries outside the station,
which may be dangerous for the
astronauts.
The Endeavour crew will also try to
test and repair the shuttle's
exterior. The crew will use a caulking
gun to apply a sticky substance to
deliberately damaged thermal tiles.
These are tiles that get damaged due
to falling ice and debris during
launch. These tests were meant to be
carried out earlier but were delayed
due to critical repairs needed.
Apart from Endeavour, the space
station will also have Europe's
Columbus space lab and a module called
Destiny that has been around since
2001. Europe's first cargo ship Jules
Verne, an unmanned Automated Transfer
Vehicle, will dock at the ISS after
Endeavour leaves. Jules Verne, which
will carry 4.6 tonnes of cargo, is
first of the six transport vehicles
promised by Europe.
NASA plans to finish assembling the
space station by 2010 after which the
three space shuttles will be retired.
Endeavour's 16-day mission is part of
the plan. Once the shuttles are
retired, NASA will have no vehicles to
carry cargo to the space stations for
at least five years. Jules Verne is
expected to fill the gap.
The remaining four shuttle launches
planned for 2008 are:
- 25 May, 2008. Discovery will deliver
the second Kibo lab component
- 28 August, 2008. Atlantis will service
the Hubble Space Telescope
- 16 October, 2008. Endeavour will
undertake a cargo flight
- 4 December, 2008. Discovery will
deliver and unload the fourth
starboard backbone segmentand the fourth set of
solar arrays and batteries
