NASA leaders gave Space Shuttle Endeavour a green light to launch at 7:17 a.m. June 13 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A on an exhausting 16-day mission to the International Space Station.
(Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, June 1, 2009.)
After a day-long flight readiness review, those NASA leaders said the shuttle is good to go, on a mission that will see five spacewalks including completion of the Japanese Kibo laboratory on the station, installing the exposed facility there.
STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.