Less Than A Week To Go!

Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex. The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section.

The 16-day mission will include five spacewalks and the installation of two platforms outside of the Japanese module. One platform is permanent and will serve as a type of porch for experiments that require direct exposure to space. The other is an experiment storage pallet that will be detached and returned with the shuttle. During the mission, Kibo's robotic arm will exchange three experiments from the palette to the platform. Future experiments also can be transferred to the platform from the inside using the laboratory’s airlock. Endeavour also will deliver a new crew member and bring back another after more than three months aboard the station.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour is finishing up the final week of prelaunch preparations for its upcoming STS-127 mission. The payload is secured inside Endeavour and on Saturday the payload bay doors were closed for flight.

The seven STS-127 astronauts went into quarantine Saturday and was to return to Kennedy at 12:15 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 9 for their final preps before Endeavour’s 7:17 a.m. launch time Saturday, June 13.

FMI: www.nasa.gov