Endeavour's crew, left to right, Greg Chamitoff, Drew Feustel, Roberto Vittori, Mike Fincke, Greg H. Johnson and Mark Kelly. Photo credit/NASA TV
Endeavour’s six astronauts returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early Thursday, each eager to begin a challenging delayed 16-day mission to equip the International Space Station with the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and external spare parts.
The challenging flight, Endeavour’s final mission and the next-to-last shuttle program voyage, has been on hold since April 29, when an electrical problem with a hydraulic system fuel line forced a scrub.
Endeavour’s countdown will begin early Friday. Lift off is set for Monday at 8:56 a.m., EDT.
“It’s great to be back,” said Endeavour commander Mark Kelly, as he and his five crew mates stepped to the runway at Kennedy from a NASA Shuttle Training Aircraft. “Four days from now we should all be strapped in and ready to go.”
Pilot Greg H. Johnson, who marked his 49th birthday on Thursday, offered the crew’s thanks to the engineers and technicians who completed their troubleshooting of the electrical issue earlier this week. The workers traced the most likely cause of the problem to a short in an avionics box in the shuttle’s engine compartment. The box as well as wiring leading to the heaters were replaced and re-tested.
“We get a lot of attention,” said Johnson of the shuttle crew. “But the real heroes in this crowd are the folks here at the Kennedy Space Center, who have been supporting the space shuttle for launches, repairs and maintenance for the last 30 years.”
Endeavour’s primary payload, the AMS, is a particle detector, essentially a big physics experiment that will be fastened to the station’s long solar power truss.
“We feel the AMS along with the ISS are great symbols of what we human beings across the planet Earth can accomplish when we work together constructively,” said Fincke.
Drew Feustel will lead four mission spacewalks. Feustel, Fincke and Greg Chamitoff will pair off for the outings to upgrade the orbiting science laboratory and retrieve science experiments.
“My team is ready,” he reported.
Endeavour’s crew includes European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, of Italy.
Kelly told reporters the crew’s family members will travel to Kennedy over the weekend to witness the launch. Among those expected is Kelly’s wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords has been hospitalized at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, where she is undergoing rehabilitation for a gunshot wound suffered at a Tucson political rally on Jan. 8.
Endeavour commander Mark Kelly Photo Credit/NASA TV
“As you know, Mark has been through a lot in the last few months,” said Chamitoff. “He’s done an incredible job of keeping track of all the details on this mission. He’s truly an amazing commander. All of us feel really really lucky to have him guide us through this complex mission.”