Endeavour on Launch Pad
Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch on STS-127 mission on 13th, June 2009 to International Space Station (ISS). The 16 day mission named ISS assembly flight 2J/A is 29th space shuttle mission to ISS. The primary purpose of mission is to deliver Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF) and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section (ELM-ES).
Kibo (meaning ‘ HOPE’ in japanese) equipped with its own airlock and robotic arm will provide a platform to perform science experiments in exposed harsh environment of space. The facility can hold upto 10 experiments payload at a time. During the course of five space walks, along with the installation of (JEM EF) and (ELM-ES), astronauts will also install six large batteries on the space station truss.
The mission will also deliver Timothy L. Kopra to ISS as flight engineer and bring Japanese astronout Koichi Wakata to Earth. Koichi Wakata is the astronaut who was tasked with performing the 16 or so experiments chosen by the Japanes public including the flying carpet and zero gravity tears. Mission will also take food and water supplies to the ISS.
Image courtesy NASA
Earlier, Endeavour was on standby STS-400 rescue mission in case Atlantis had suffered from a permanent damage during the launch, but was officially called off the rescue service mission on 21st May 2009, when STS-125 Atlantis was cleared for re-entry after its inspection. The preparations for STS-127 were immediately initiated and Endeavour was moved from luanch pad 39B to 39A.
KIBO with its Components (Courtesy NASA)
In the video Endeavour is getting ready for STS-127