Sun, Feb 17, 2008
USAF Thunderbird Fly-Over On Schedule
Space shuttle Endeavour's rollout to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center, Fla., has been rescheduled for 12:01 a.m. on
Monday, Feb. 18. Endeavour is targeted to lift off March 11 on the
16-day STS-123 mission to the International Space Station.
The first movement of the shuttle will be approximately seven
hours earlier than previously scheduled. The fully assembled space
shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external fuel tank and twin
solid rocket boosters, will be mounted on a Mobile Launcher
Platform and delivered to the pad on top of a crawler transporter.
The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile
journey. The process is expected to take approximately six
hours.
Weather permitting, as part of NASA's 50th anniversary
activities, the Air Force Thunderbirds will fly over Endeavour at
the launch pad (as they did last year in preparation for the 2007
World Space Expo, shown below) at approximately 10:15 a.m.
The STS-123 mission will deliver the first section of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian
Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. Five spacewalks
will be conducted during the flight.
Endeavour will be commanded by Dominic Gorie. Gregory H. Johnson
will be the pilot. Mission specialists will be Robert L. Behnken,
Mike Foreman, Rick Linnehan, Garrett Reisman and Japanese astronaut
Takao Doi. Reisman will remain on the station as a resident crew
member, replacing station Flight Engineer Leopold Eyharts of the
European Space Agency, who will return home on Endeavour.
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