Endeavour for STS-127 launch Saturday is ready to go

[cosmictraveler]

Mark L. Polansky will command the shuttle Endeavour for STS-127. Douglas G. Hurley will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are Christopher J. Cassidy, Thomas H. Marshburn, David A. Wolf and Julie Payette, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

The mission will deliver Timothy L. Kopra to the station as a flight engineer and science officer and return Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to Earth. Hurley, Cassidy, Marshburn and Kopra will be making their first trips to space.

Endeavour sets sail on its 23rd mission with the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The facility will provide a type of "front porch" for experiments in the exposed environment, and a robotic arm that will be attached to the Kibo Pressurized Module and used to position experiments outside the station. The mission will include five spacewalks.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts127/index.html

http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/platforms/kibo_all.jpg

[cosmictraveler]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak cropped up during the fueling of space shuttle Endeavour on Saturday and forced NASA to postpone the launch by at least four days.

It was almost identical to a leak that stalled another flight back in March and threatened to bump Endeavour's space station construction mission all the way into July.

NASA halted the countdown shortly after midnight, less than seven hours before Endeavour was due to blast off. The seven astronauts had yet to suit up.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31326176/ns/technology_and_science-space

[draqon]

June 17 is the earliest the shuttle could be set for launch.