At the Kennedy Space Center, preparations are intensifying for the expected launch of the shuttle Endeavor to the International Space Station carrying additional components to the Japanese space laboratory Kibu, on June 13
The shuttle Endeavor is already standing on launch pad 39A, and preparations for this week's 16-day mission to the International Space Station are already complete. This is after NASA approved to move forward with preparations for the launch. The launch of the Endeavor spacecraft for mission STS-127 is currently scheduled for June 13, 07:17 EST, 14:17 Israel time.
Mission STS-127 is the 32nd mission to the International Space Station, and the last in a series of three flights intended to assemble the Japanese Kibo Laboratory Complex. In the trunk of Endeavor is a component for experiments that are carried out under conditions of exposure to space and an experimental logistics component that will also operate under conditions of exposure to space. These two components will be attached to the Kibo component that is already operating at the station.
At the end of the week, astronauts on the International Space Station, which as mentioned had a crew of six people, performed a spacewalk designed to prepare the infrastructure for assembling the new components on top of the Kibo laboratory. Increasing the crew will allow the partner countries in the space station greater flexibility, and reduce the dependence on the shuttle crews for the needs of spacewalks, after they will stop arriving in the third quarter of 2010 anyway.
Meanwhile, a Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As you know, on May 24, Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California after completing the STS-125 mission dedicated to upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope.
