STS-127 crewmembers gather at NASA Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Pad 39A for a question-and-answer session with the media.
Shuttle is "go for launch" on June 13
6 Jun 2009
NASA managers have completed a review of space shuttle Endeavour's readiness for flight and selected June 13 as the official launch date for the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 9:17pm Sydney time (7:17am US EDT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Endeavour's launch date was announced following a daylong Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy. During the meeting, top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.
The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Kibo laboratory.
Endeavour's flight will deliver the final components of the Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station. The mission will include five spacewalks and the installation of two platforms outside of the Japanese module.
One platform is permanent and will serve as a type of porch for experiments that require direct exposure to space. The other is an experiment storage palette that will be detached and returned with the shuttle.
During the mission, Kibo's robotic arm will exchange three experiments from the palette to the platform. Future experiments also can be transferred to the platform from the inside using the laboratory's airlock.
STS-127 will be the 127th space shuttle flight, the 29th to the station, the 23rd for Endeavour and the third in 2009. Seven flights to the station remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.
The STS-127 crewmembers are 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.
More information:
STS-127 mission
International Space Station
Adapted from information issued by NASA.
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