Endeavour Blasts Off Into Night Sky
Shuttle Crew To Spend Thanksgiving Remodeling International Space Station
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Photographers follow the path of space shuttle Endeavour as it lifts off from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Nov. 14, 2008. The bright light on the right is the full moon. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
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Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Nov. 14, 2008, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Space shuttle Endeavour seven member crew is on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
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Space shuttle Endeavour lifts-off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Nov. 14, 2008, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.. Space shuttle Endeavour seven member crew is on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Jim Dietz)
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STS-126 astronauts, from right, Commander Chris Ferguson, Mission Specialists, Steve Bowen, Heidimarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialsts Sandra Magnus, Donald Petit, and Shane Kimbrough, leave the Operations and Checkout Building en route to Launch pad 39-A and a planned liftoff on the space shuttle Endeavour, Nov. 14, 2008 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
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The shuttle rose off its launch pad at 7:55 p.m. EST, right on time, in a brilliant flash of light visible for miles around.
"We're about to get an extreme home makeover. It's an exciting day," space station commander Mike Fincke radioed to Mission Control. "It doesn't get better than this, my friends."
Endeavour's astronauts will double as kitchen and bathroom installers once they arrive at the space station Sunday, hooking up extra cooking and sleeping equipment so the space station's crew can expand next year. They will deliver a new refrigerator as well, giving station residents much-desired cold drinks for a change.
The nighttime launch was a special treat for onlookers. Only about a quarter of all shuttle flights begin in darkness, and this one made for a spectacular show. The moonrise that preceded the launch was an extra touch; the nearly full moon provided a breathtaking backdrop.
"The vehicle's in good shape, the weather's beautiful," launch director Mike Leinbach. "Good luck, Godspeed, and have a Happy Thanksgiving on orbit."
"It's our turn to take home improvement to a new level," replied commander Christopher Ferguson.
NASA almost called off the launch at the last minute because a door on the launch pad that was not secured by workers. Launch controllers assured everyone that the door would not strike Endeavour and that, at worst, the room used to gain access to the shuttle would sustain damage.
Endeavour and its crew will spend 15 days in orbit, including the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 27.
Filling the payload bay are thousands of pounds of equipment for the space station - enough to allow NASA to double the size of the space station's three-person crew by June.
Among the additions: two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette, exercise machine and NASA's revolutionary new recycling system designed to turn urine and condensation into drinking water.
All this will transform the space station into a five-bedroom, two-bath, two-kitchen home capable of housing six residents.
"In a way, this is a working man's flight," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
"This is something that's the size of a small ship, and it needs a lot to keep it running. This is one of the flights where we deliver those things," Griffin told The Associated Press.
The accouterments - as Griffin calls them - also are intended to make life "bearable" for the astronauts spending months there.
Endeavour's five men and two women will help install all the new equipment, with help from the space station's three residents.
The shuttle crew also will take on a lube job at the orbiting outpost, which was soaring 220 miles above the South Pacific when Endeavour thundered off.
A massive joint that rotates half of the space station's solar wings toward the sun has been jammed for more than a year; it's clogged with metal grit from grinding parts. The spacewalking astronauts will spend most of their time working on that joint and also add extra grease to keep a twin joint working.
NASA hopes to stretch the mission to 16 days if possible, which would put touchdown late in the Thanksgiving weekend.
The space agency has just 10 more shuttle flights, including this one, before the fleet is retired in 2010 to make way for a new rocketship capable of flying to the space station and, eventually, carrying astronauts to the moon. An additional shuttle flight or two could be in NASA's future, however, to try to narrow the projected five-year gap between the last shuttle flight and the first manned launch of the new spaceship.
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Posted by kevinkkloste
They should, they deserve it.
Now that''s what you might say is a Long distance trouble-call.
But then, we could always do the usual by contracting that part out to the Asians.
The astronauts may not understand the instructions on how to turn urine into drinking water, but I am sure they will not mind because the cost will be much lower.
When they can learn to speak clear and understandable english then perhaps they can Bid on contracts. i am so sick and tired of companies outsourcing call centers in India the cultural differences and lack of good english skills make calls so disruptive, i complain and complain but to no avail.
They would rather pay some person overseas $1.50 an hour than allow an american to answer the phone who can get a responce in a minute when it takes me over ten minutes of attempting to get through to someone who does not speak english as a primary language
The astronauts may not understand the instructions on how to turn urine into drinking water, but I am sure they will not mind because the cost will be much lower. Posted by snowman4406
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Pardon my failure to grasp the nuances of English vernacular, but I was wondering why an unmanned Chandrayaan would be concerned with either urine or with drinking water. And for whom would "instructions" be written or spoken? Please do not call the help line for answers; there will be a twenty minute wait. You are twelfth in queue.
We can''t be reliant on the Russians to get to ISS once the Shuttle program is supposed to end and the new veihicle is ready.
Now going back to the moon and to Mars at taxpayer expense is a bad idea.
Posted by earache4 at 01:57 PM : Nov 15, 2008
Oh, come on. This mission is a very important one! If the recycling system they''re testing works, then we''ll have another way to save water! Besides, the space program has never been a waste of money. Considering we wouldn''t have any of the electronic conveniences we have nowadays without it...
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by earache4
November 15, 2008 9:00 PM EST
- Oh, come on. This mission is a very important one! If the recycling system they''re testing works, then we''ll have another way to save water! Besides, the space program has never been a waste of money. Considering we wouldn''t have any of the electronic conveniences we have nowadays without it...
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See all 17 CommentsPosted by nordeck52 at 04:14 PM
Not to mention some of the most spectacular disasters caught on film....