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.

FMI: www.nasa.gov