Endeavor blasts off on next-to-last shuttle flight

Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) May 16, 2011

The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station on the penultimate flight for the US shuttle program.

The six-member crew of astronauts including five Americans and one Italian, Roberto Vittori, is delivering a potent physics experiment to probe the origins of the universe during the 16-day mission, which will include four spacewalks.

On a cloudy morning, as many as 500,000 onlookers crowded into coastal viewing spots in Brevard County, the area around Florida's Kennedy Space Center, with the US shuttle program set to end later this year after the final flight by Atlantis.

"This mission represents the power of teamwork, commitment and exploration," shuttle commander Mark Kelly said shortly before liftoff at 8:56 am (1256 GMT).

"It is in the DNA of our great country to reach for the stars and explore. We must not stop. To all the millions watching today including our spouses, children, family and friends, we thank you for your support."

US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords -- shuttle commander Kelly's wife who is recovering from a gunshot wound to her head -- watched the launch along with other astronaut spouses and family members from Kennedy Space Center.

The STS-134 mission, initially set to begin April 29, was postponed when technicians discovered a power failure in a heating line that served to prevent fuel from freezing in orbit. NASA completed exhaustive repairs last week.

Mission control in Houston described the takeoff as "a fairly routine ascent" and added "there were no anomalies discussed whatsoever on the way uphill for today's launch."

The shuttle is set to dock at the ISS Wednesday at 6:15 am (1015 GMT), and will stay there until May 30, returning to the United States on June 1, the US space agency said.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a two-billion-dollar, 15,000 pound (7,000 kilogram) particle detector, will be left behind to scour the universe for hints of dark matter and antimatter over the next decade.

"It's a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack," said French scientist Jean-Pierre Vialle, part of the international team that worked on the AMS-02 project.

"But if we find it, it will show beyond a doubt that stars made of antimatter exist in some part of the universe. That would be a major revelation."

Giffords, who was allowed a break by her rehabilitation doctors in Houston to watch the launch, is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, after she was attacked in January during a meeting with local voters.

She and her husband swapped wedding rings before the shuttle hatch closed and the spacecraft whisked her husband into orbit, said Giffords' spokeswoman Pia Carusone.

"Mark brought her wedding ring the last two launches. This time, she wanted his."

Giffords also handwrote a note, which has been hidden on the shuttle for her husband to read later, and Kelly brought along a photograph of the two of them.

The 30-year US space shuttle program formally ends later this year with the flight of Atlantis, leaving Russia's space capsules as the sole option for world astronauts heading to and from the orbiting research lab.

Endeavor's delay has pushed back Atlantis' planned liftoff from June 28 to mid-July, but no final date has been set.

After the final shuttle missions, the three spacecraft in the flying fleet and the prototype Enterprise will be sent to different museums across the country.

Discovery, the oldest in the group, was the first shuttle to retire after its final journey to the ISS ended in March. Endeavor is the youngest, and flew its first space mission in 1991. STS-134 marks its 25th and final mission.

Endeavor is the sixth US space shuttle ever built, and was commissioned after the Challenger exploded in 1986.

The other original members of the fleet include Enterprise, a prototype that never flew in space, and Columbia which disintegrated on its return to Earth in 2003.

A total of 14 astronauts were killed in the Columbia and Challenger disasters.

With the US shuttle program closing, the world's astronauts will rely on Russia's space capsules for transit to the ISS at a cost of $51 million per seat until a new American spacecraft can be built by private enterprise, possibly by 2015.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Endeavour_blasts_off_on_next-to-last_shuttle_flight_999.html.