Space Shuttle Endeavour Blasts Into Orbit

(AP)  Shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven blasted into orbit Tuesday on what was to be the longest space station mission ever, a 16-day voyage to build a gangly robot and add a new room that will serve as a closet for a future lab. The space shuttle roared from its seaside pad at 2:28 a.m., lighting up the sky for miles around.

It was a rare treat: The last time NASA launched a shuttle at nighttime was in 2006. Only about a quarter of shuttle flights have begun in darkness.

"Good luck and Godspeed, and we'll see you back here in 16 days," launch director Mike Leinbach radioed to the astronauts right before liftoff.

"God truly has blessed us with a beautiful night here, Mike, to launch, so let's light them up and give Him a show," replied Endeavour's commander, Dominic Gorie.

They did. The shuttle took flight with a flash of light, giving a peach-colored glow to the low clouds just offshore before disappearing into the darkness.

Gorie and his crew face a daunting job once they reach the international space station late Wednesday night. The astronauts will perform five spacewalks, the most ever planned during a shuttle visit.

The launching site was jammed with Canadians and Japanese representing two of the major partners in the international space station. The Canadian Space Agency supplied Dextre, the two-armed robot that was hitching a ride aboard Endeavour, while the Japanese Space Agency sent up the first part of its massive Kibo lab, a storage compartment for experiments, tools and spare parts.

Also on hand for the liftoff was a 19-member congressional delegation led by Rep. Nick Lampson, whose Texas district includes the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He is pushing for increased NASA funding.

For the first time since space station construction began nearly 10 years ago, all five major partners were about to own a piece of the orbiting real estate. The launch of the first section of Kibo, or Hope, finally propelled Japan into the space station action.

"Our Japanese people have been waiting for a very long, long time," said Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, the Japanese Space Agency's station program manager.

Preliminary design work for Kibo began in 1990. Space station construction, however, was stalled over the years for various reasons, most recently the 2003 Columbia tragedy.

The main part of the Kibo lab will fly on the next shuttle mission in May, with the final installment, a porch for outdoor experiments, going up next year.

Altogether, the Japanese Space Agency has invested about $6.7 billion in the space station program, including a Kibo control center near Tokyo.

Canada's $200 million-plus Dextre, meanwhile, is designed to eventually take over some of the more routine outdoor maintenance chores from spacewalking astronauts. Dextre, short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter, will join the space station's Canadian-built robot arm, already in orbit for seven years.

In addition to working with their international payloads, Endeavour's astronauts will try out a caulking gun and high-tech goo on deliberately damaged shuttle thermal tile samples.

The test - part of NASA's ongoing post-Columbia safety effort - should have been performed last year, but was put off because of emergency space station repairs.

Astronaut Garrett Reisman will stay behind on the space station until June, swapping places with a Frenchman who accompanied Europe's Columbus lab into orbit in February.

A Japanese astronaut is also part of Endeavour's all-male crew.

It is the second of six planned shuttle missions this year, all but one to the space station. NASA faces a 2010 deadline for finishing the station and retiring its shuttles.

[libsrweak]

meaningless "showboat" launches. It''''s time to mothball NASA and get some scientists and rocketeers to work on worthwhile exploration.

Posted by tucanofulano at 11:23 PM : Mar 11, 2008
+ report abuse

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???????????????showboat launches?????????

I think you watch too many sci-fi movies..BABY STEPS..BABY STEPS..

[tucano2]

What would the cost of our gasoline be if NASA wasn''t squandering fuel on meaningless "showboat" launches. It''s time to mothball NASA and get some scientists and rocketeers to work on worthwhile exploration.

[cyberus-2009]

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(much snipped)
Yes, that means that we could have almost had three James Webb Telescopes for the cost of the single Hubble program.

Hubble is great but the enormous cost in repairing it would have been better spent just by fixing it with a robot or better yet by sending an even better one up.

I%u2019m not disputing the enormous contributions to science by Hubble but I take exception to the waste of money in sending up Humans to fix it rather than either sending up a robot(for some but not all tasks) or just replacing it.

Posted by viscor at 03:01 PM : Mar 11, 2008
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While I agree that further repair of Hubble is a waste of resources, I disagree with the idea that it was a waste to put up in the first place.
IMHO its what we learned from our mistakes with Hubble that makes replacing it with a JWebb *now* a good idea ... without the lessons we learned from Hubble (again IMO) a JWebb *then* wouldn''t be as good as it is now.

[viscor]

Manned space flight is cool exciting but is also a poor use of funding. Anything that we do in space with man can be done better, safer, cheaper and more often with robotics.

Proponents of manned flight almost always point to things like the repair mission to Hubble. Certainly the repair missions were beyond the current capability of robots. The trouble is that the math doesn%u2019t add up. Check this out:

Cost of Hubble Program to date is about $6 billion
Cost for mission to service telescope in May 2008 About $800 million

Cost of new and better James Webb Telescope $2.4 billion (Approximate)

$6 +$0.8 = $6.8 billion for Hubble


$6.8 divided by $2.4 = 2.8

Yes, that means that we could have almost had three James Webb Telescopes for the cost of the single Hubble program.

Hubble is great but the enormous cost in repairing it would have been better spent just by fixing it with a robot or better yet by sending an even better one up.

I%u2019m not disputing the enormous contributions to science by Hubble but I take exception to the waste of money in sending up Humans to fix it rather than either sending up a robot(for some but not all tasks) or just replacing it. The real trouble here isn%u2019t the Hubble. The trouble is with the shuttle program. The shuttle is a perfect example of a money pit and the space station is even worse.

Man is space is cooler but robots in space make far more sense in so many ways.

[fstop100]

Our government should make sure private industry keeps jobs in this country. Jobs financed by the government costs the taxpayers.

[rushlimpdrug]

Posted by wangbang747 at 11:45 AM

OMG you may be right!

Learning how to repair tiles in space using a caulk gun while wearing gloves.

Where do I sign up for that course?

[wangbang]

You people who whine about tax dollars being wasted on the space program are so short sighted. It''s not like the U.S. government goes to the Rocket Store and buys a shuttle. American companies built it. They employ thousands of people in good jobs. But I guess you think using tax payer money to open up shelters and soup kitchens and training programs for custodial and fast food work is better for the economy.

[downtowner97]

I''d love to see the price tag on that caulk gun.

[timdgrim]

This shuttle mission is brought to you and financed by borrowed Chinese money!

[rushlimpdrug]

Wow.
Another trip to the space station to make a closet.
Sounds like everyother house, not enough closets.
I can see them tearing out the old carpet and adding wood floors next.

What a waste.