earlier related report
Shuttle Endeavour On Route To Space Station
Cape Canaveral - Nov 23, 2002
Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched Saturday evening at 7:49:47pm EST (0049 UT). The last shuttle mission for 2002 will deliver to the International Space Station the third piece of the Station's exterior truss backbone, and help kick off the third year of science inside the orbiting laboratory by bringing up a new crew along with more scientific equipment and experiments

earlier related report
More Rain In Spain, But Shuttle Fueled For 7:50pm Launch
Cape Canaveral - Nov 23, 2002
Launch of Endeavour was scrubbed Friday evening when rain and cloud at both emergency landing strips in Spain forced a scrub. Although the bad weather in Spain continues, NASA decided to make another attempt Saturday at 7.50pm EST (0050 UT) during a 10 minute window that opens at 7.45pm. The last shuttle mission for 2002 will rotate the ISS crew and deliver another segment of the "orbital railway".

earlier related report
Shuttle Endeavour's Launch Delayed Because Of Bad Weather Over Spain
Cape Canaveral - Nov 22, 2002
The launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, scheduled for Friday night, was suspended because of poor weather over Spain, venue of two emergency landing sites should the shuttle run into trouble, NASA said.

Endeavour was scheduled to lift off at 8:15pm Friday (01h15 GMT Saturday). And although weather forecasts were good for the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site, weather must also be acceptable over at least one of the two alternate Spanish airstrips.

Weather conditions at air strips at Moron, southern Spain, and Saragossa in the north were both unacceptable, said NASA, adding that an air base in Morocco that once served as an emergency shuttle landing site was no longer in use.

The emergency airstrips would only be used if the shuttle developped engine trouble or failed to attain sufficient altitude following liftoff.

The shuttle had been initially scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on November 11, but NASA put off the launch after a leak was discovered in a pipe that carries oxygen to the cabin of the spacecraft.

The shuttle's crew is to do construction work on the ISS. The shuttle is also to deliver a fresh crew of three astronauts to the ISS and bring home the current one.

earlier related report
Endeavour Set For Launch
Cape Canaveral - Nov 22, 2002
The US space agency has scheduled the launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour for Friday, officials said Wednesday.

Endeavour is scheduled to lift off between 8:10pm to 8:20pm EST (0110 UT) according to NASA officials who added that the target time is 8:15pm when the ISS orbital plane is directly aligned overhead with Cape Canaveral.

"Currently, weather forecasts indicate an 80-percent chance of favorable weather for lift off on Friday, with high winds being the main concern," NASA said in a statement.

The shuttle had been initially scheduled for liftoff on November 11 for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. But NASA put off the launch after a leak was discovered in a pipe that carries oxygen to the cabin of the spacecraft.

The leaky pipe has now been repaired, and NASA official Ron Dittemore expressed his satisfaction with the work done.

"All other lines removed were found clean," he said. "We are safe to fly there also. The teams have done a marvelous job."

Mission managers also announced that Endeavours robotic arm can carry out its tasks at the International Space Station.

The arm was bruised during efforts to troubleshoot the oxygen leak, but tests and analysis have now cleared it for flight.

The arm will be used to lift a truss out of the payload bay and hand it to its station counterpart, Canadarm2.

According to Dittemore, a similar model of the shuttle arm has been tested in Toronto, Canada, and the results have been successful.

"We were able to duplicate the damage on the arm and test it," Dittemore said. "We were able to prove that the arm is fully functional. The teams agree that the arm is safe to fly."

Endeavour, in addition to its onboard team, will be carrying three astronauts to the space station, replacing three others who will return to Earth.

Adding More Backbone
Space Shuttle Endeavour main mission will deliver to the International Space Station (ISS) the third piece of the Station's exterior truss backbone, and kick off the third year of science inside the orbiting laboratory by bringing up a new load of scientific experiments.

The 14-ton, girder-like, Port One, or P1 truss � assembled and tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. � will enhance the Station's future cooling and power systems. It will be attached to the left side of the Segment Zero, or S0 truss, during the fourth day of the STS-113 mission.

While the Endeavour is docked with the Station, astronauts will perform three spacewalks to outfit and activate the new truss. The Station's other two truss structures � the S0 and Starboard One, or S1 � were installed earlier this year.

"This is the first port integrated truss segment to be delivered to the Station," said Alex Pest, the Boeing Company manager who oversaw the completion of the P-1 truss when it was assembled and tested at the Marshall Center. "We tested the truss' strength, as well as its electrical connections and fluid lines that will be important for future Station power and cooling."

The STS-113 mission also kicks off the beginning of the third year of science aboard the orbiting research laboratory and marks the start of a new four-month crew rotation on the ISS. Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin will conduct new scientific experiments and continue research started on the five prior expeditions.

Although the Station is in the process of being built and the lab is still being outfitted, research hours are adding up. More than 65 NASA-funded investigations have compiled more than 90,000 hours of science operations time on-orbit. The Station's five Expedition crews have devoted more than 1,000 hours to research on the ISS.

To carry out Expedition Six's 19 experiments, the crew will work closely with ground controllers in the science command post for ISS science operations � the Payload Operations Center at Marshall.

"We manage all the science operations on the Station and work with planners and scientists around the world to schedule research activities," said Lamar Stacy, the payload operations director who leads the Expedition Six payload ops team at the Marshall Center. "To ensure successful operations, we work before each expedition, training the crew and preparing procedures for conducting research in orbit."

Many of the Station experiments are managed by the Marshall Center. Fundamental experiments that explore how physical processes are affected by the microgravity, or low-gravity inside the Station, are managed by Marshall's Microgravity Sciences and Applications Division. Industry-funded research conducted through NASA's 15 Commercial Space Centers is managed by the Space Product Development Program at the Marshall Center.

The new investigations include two series of fluid physics experiments to be conducted inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox � a major research facility delivered to the Station in June. The glovebox features a sealed work area with windows and attached rubber gloves that allow crewmembers to work safely with experiments involving chemicals, fluids and burning or molten samples. It was built by the European Space Agency in cooperation with the Marshall Center.

A new life sciences experiment � Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight � characterizes the load on the lower body and muscle activity in crewmembers while working on the Station.

The Protein Crystal Growth Single-locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES), which has flown on three prior Station research expeditions, will return to orbit with a new set of proteins and other biological substances. Scientists want to grow high-quality crystals of selected proteins in microgravity for later analyses on the ground to determine the proteins' molecular structure. Research may contribute to advances in medicine, agriculture and other fields.

New samples will be delivered for the Zeolite Crystal Growth Furnace (ZCG) � an experiment sponsored by a commercial firm attempting to grow larger crystals in microgravity, with possible applications in chemical processes, electronic device manufacturing and other applications on Earth.

Endeavour will bring back plants, biological crystals, and microscopic capsules that are small enough to transport drugs to specific parts of the human body. Experiment equipment and samples will be returned to scientists around the world for in-depth analysis.

To launch the payloads and the new Expedition Six ISS crew safely into orbit, Marshall managers and engineers will support the STS-113 launch from both the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Huntsville Operations Support Center at the Marshall Center.

The Space Shuttle Projects Office at Marshall manages the Shuttle's propulsion system, including its three main engines, external fuel tank, twin solid rocket boosters and reusable solid rocket motors. Marshall serves as a key leader in NASA's research and development of the propulsion systems that enable safe, reliable and lower-cost access to space and space exploration.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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