Endeavor launch

According to news coming in from the American space agency, the space shuttle Endeavor has been authorized to take off on Saturday, June 13th, from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight will deliver two new modules to the International Space Station, and the crew, in a series of five spacewalks, will attach them to the Japanese Kibo science module. The shuttle will also carry up a replacement for JAXA Astronaut Koichi Wakata, in the person of NASA Flight Engineer Timothy Kopra.

“We're in really good shape to fly. As a management team we had a good unanimous 'go' for launch,” the Chief of Endeavor's mission management team, Mike Moses, said recently in a press conference at the KSC. “The weather does look very good for launch. We also look very good if we happen to delay,” Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer, added. She explained that there was a 90 percent chance of good weather for Saturday, and that the following days would be clear as well.

Stormy weather caused some concerns during STS-125, when the space shuttle Atlantis could not land at the KSC on account of the clouds and heavy rain, and had to spend two extra days in orbit. The craft eventually landed at the Edwards Air Force Base, in Southern California, as mission planners wanted to shorten the amount of time the craft spent in space with low energy reserves by as much as possible.