About $360 million of the $400 million cost has been raised. ET-94, NASAs last-existing built-for-flight space shuttle external tank, takes to the sky assisted by two cranes for placement in the construction site for the California Science Centers new. In addition to completing the building, about 100 other aircraft and spacecraft will be installed along with numerous interpretive exhibits, Rudolph said. The 116-foot-long (35.3-meter-long) rocket motors were trucked to Los Angeles from the Mojave Desert in October and installed the following month. In use, the boosters would be attached to the external tank to help the shuttle’s main engines lift off. It began in July with precise installation of the bottom segments of the side boosters, known as aft skirts, for the first time outside of a NASA facility. The process of assembling the shuttle system in vertical configuration was dubbed “Go for Stack,” an informal term for putting together rocket components for launch. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Air and Space Center was held in 2022 on the 11th anniversary of Endeavour’s final return from space. The shuttle was initially displayed horizontally in a temporary exhibit hall. The external tank arrived by barge and made a similar trip across the city. The shuttle was flown to Los Angeles International Airport in 2012 atop a NASA Boeing 747 and then created a spectacle as it was inched through tight city streets to Exposition Park. It’s part of a collaboration with Google and YouTube.Endeavour flew 25 missions between 19, when NASA’s shuttle program ended. Watch Miles O’Brien’s LIVE webcast for spaceflightnow from Kennedy Space Center here.Īnd you can submit your questions for our special LIVE interview with the Endeavour crew, which is expected to take place three days after launch. It was named in a national contest by elementary school students after the British HMS Endeavor, the sailing ship commanded by 18th century explorer James Cook. In its short nine-year career, Endeavour has flown missions to fix a communications satellite, repair the Hubble Space Telescope and transported to space the first African-American woman, and the first married couple. It will also deliver spare parts, including two communication antennas and a high-pressure gas tank.Įndeavour was born out of tragedy - authorized in 1987 to replace the Challenger shuttle after the 1986 disaster. AMS is a massive supercooled magnet designed to soak up cosmic rays, and to search for dark matter and antimatter. The president still traveled to Cape Canaveral, despite the cancelling of the launch, and met with Giffords and Kelly.ĭuring its 14-day mission, the crew will deliver to the International Space Station a $2 billion particle physics detector, know as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS. Giffords and President Barack Obama were expected to attend the launch. Kelly’s wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, survived an assassination attempt in Tucson in January. “Unfortunate for the (Endeavour) team and Mark Kelly and his crew, but today the orbiter is not ready to fly and as we always say in this business, we will not fly before we’re ready,” said launch director Mike Leinbach. The heaters on one of the ship’s power units failed about four hours before liftoff. Space shuttle Endeavour, NASA’s youngest orbiter, was scheduled blast off into space for the final time at 3:47 pm EST Friday, marking the next-to-last scheduled launch of the shuttle program, but liftoff was delayed due to technical issues.Īccording to the AP, Commander Mark Kelly and his crew were on their way to the launch pad, when NASA halted the countdown. At least a 48 hour turnaround less than a minute ago via Facebook Favorite Retweet Reply Miles O’Brien The six crew members, led by commander Mark Kelly, are in Houston awaiting developments. The problem has been traced to a switchbox in the shuttle’s engine compartment. ET: NASA engineers have determined that the space shuttle Endeavour will not launch on May 2, and NASA has not yet set a new launch date. The new box is slated to get installed on Tuesday, followed by a series of tests. The plan is to remove and replace the box, which is expected to take several days to complete. There is no official launch date set yet.Ī 48-pound box of switches in the engine compartment that controls power feeds throughout the shuttle has been identified as the likely source of what caused heaters on a fuel line in an auxiliary power unit to fail on Friday. ET: The launch of shuttle Endeavour was postponed to no earlier than May 8 due to a faulty heating system, NASA officials said Sunday. less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply NASA NASA shuttle & station managers met Monday & determined that Tuesday May 10 is the earliest Endeavour could be launched on STS-134.
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