Endeavor heads for space station with picture window - Summary

Washington - The space shuttle Endeavor lit up the Florida coast before dawn Monday as it blasted off for a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The 1014 GMT start was the final night-time launch for the aging shuttle fleet, which is to be mothballed later this year.

Endeavor is carrying a six-window viewing area that will give astronauts a panoramic look at Earth, the station and visiting spacecraft.

Endeavor's 13-day mission will carry the Tranquility node to the ISS, making the orbiting space lab 90-per-cent complete. It is to dock with the ISS Wednesday at 0509 GMT.

The Italian-made addition is designed as a connecting element that will also provide ISS's permanent crew with more space and house life support and environmental control systems, a treadmill and other equipment.

"It was an important event," Jean-Jacques Dordain, European Space Agency director general, said of the launch. "Even more important for us because the shuttle was full of European hardware."

Perhaps the most anticipated part of Tranquility is the cupola that it will attach to the station. The six-windowed space will allow astronauts to operate robotic controls and get a 360-degree view, like a crane operator sitting in a cabin.

It will be the largest window ever flown into space and is made of specially equipped glass that protects crew from solar radiation. The view will allow scientific observations and provide long-term astronauts with a much-need glimpse of home.

The windows come equipped with shutters to protect them from passing space debris and will be closed when not in use. The panes are designed to be replaced in space if need be.

The launch marks the beginning of the end of NASA's nearly 29- year-old space shuttle program, which is scheduled to be mothballed in September. Endeavor will be followed by just four more shuttle flights to complete construction of the ISS.

In 2010 NASA will say goodbye to the shuttle program as each craft takes its final flight. The US space agency decided to retire the aging fleet after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated when re- entering Earth's atmosphere in 2003, but first used the craft to complete construction of the ISS.

The large shuttles are the only existing spacecraft large enough to haul pieces of the station into orbit.

NASA had planned to replace the shuttle with next generation Orion spacecraft that were a throwback to the Apollo program of the 1960s, but President Barack Obama last week scrubbed the so-called Constellation program from his budget.

Instead, he devoted 6 billion dollars over five years to encouraging commercial firms to ferry astronauts into orbit in what would essentially be a space taxi service.

The United States will be reliant on Russian Soyuz craft to take US astronauts into space until an alternative is ready to fly.

Three spacewalks are planned to install and outfit Tranquility.

Endeavor is scheduled to return to Earth on February 20.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308124,endeavour-heads-for-space-station-with-picture-window--summary.html.