Visit for complete coverage of Endeavour's final mission STS-134 or follow us and on Facebook. You can follow senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter ClaraMoskowitz. Museum goers can expect to get their first up-close look at the space shuttles sometime in the next year or two.Īfter Endeavour's STS-134 mission, NASA plans one more shuttle flight - the June launch of Atlantis - before the space shuttle program draws to a close. He bestowed Atlantis on the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center, Endeavour on the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and Discovery on the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.Īfter each orbiter completes its last mission, it must go through a months-long process to outfit it for public display. NASA administrator Charles Bolden recently announced the retirement locations for the space shuttles. "The emotional aspect is very, very real and it's very difficult to put into words, but I think all of Kennedy Space Center got a big boost when we got the word that were going to be able to keep Atlantis." "We know the end is coming and we're dealing with it," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach said. NASA mission managers, and the astronauts themselves, have said Endeavour's mission will be bittersweet, as it represents the end of the line for this orbiter, and almost the end of an era.
The mission is slated to last 14 days, but NASA officials have said they may extend the flight by two extra days to allow the astronauts to get more work done. To help install some of this equipment, and to perform various maintenance tasks on the space station's exterior, the shuttle astronauts plan four ambitious spacewalks. The mission will deliver a new tank of ammonia coolant, equipment for the Dextre robot, and spare parts for the laboratory's antenna communications system. In addition to carrying AMS, Endeavour will also be packed full of 14,000 pounds (6,350 kg) of spare supplies to outfit the space station for the era after the shuttles stop flying. "It's the premier physics experiment it's probably the most expensive thing ever flown by the space shuttle," Kelly said in a NASA interview. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will be installed on the space station to search for cosmic ray particles that might shed light on cosmic mysteries such as the invisible dark matter that is thought to permeate the universe. (Image credit: NASA/Glenn Benson)Įndeavor's main mission is to carry up a particle detector that aims to revolutionize astrophysics and cosmology. The AMS instrument will search for cosmic rays from the International Space Station. Technicians examine the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument in a work stand ahead of its planned launch on NASA's space shuttle Endeavour. "It's a testimony to the entire crew's ability to stay focused, to compartmentalize and to do what they need to do." "The crew has just done a tremendous job of staying on focus and being trained and ready to go fly," NASA's associate administrator for space operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, said during a press conference last week. The spaceflyers, especially Kelly, had to call on their training to compartmentalize their feelings and focus on the mission when the job was at hand. Giffords' shooting was devastating for the close-knit crew, who pulled together to support each other in its aftermath, according to the astronauts. She traveled from her rehabilitation hospital in Houston to Florida on Wednesday. Giffords survived a January assassination attempt when a gunman opened fire on her and others outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store. (Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)Īnother high-profile attendee will be Kelly's wife, wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Johnson and Mission Specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Roberto Vittori and Greg Chamitoff. From left, the astronauts are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. The real countdown for Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled for Friday afternoon, April 29, 2011. The astronauts of STS-134 came to Kennedy Space Center recently for countdown rehearsal.