Photo: Bathed in xenon lights, space shuttle Endeavour moves along the crawlerway from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Riding atop a crawler-transporter attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, Endeavour's last scheduled 3.4-mile trek to the pad, known as "rollout," took just less than eight hours. (NASA/Terry Zaperac)
As I type this post, I'm in-flight to Orlando for the launch of Shuttle Endeavour's final planned mission, STS-134 (Wikipedia).
The STS-134 crew members are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.
During the 14-day mission, Endeavour will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for Dextre. This will be the 36th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.
I'll be hanging at Kennedy Space Center with the team from SpaceFlightNow, who cover these things with the best live video coverage there is.
As always, Miles O'Brien will be hosting the SpaceFlightNow webcast, along with David Waters and Leroy Chiao. The web video fun starts Friday, April 29 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), and the shuttle is scheduled for blastoff that same day at 3:47 p.m. EDT (1947 GMT) on a two-week flight to the International Space Station.
Expected attendees of note include President Barack Obama and the first family, as well as congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, whose husband is the commander of this mission.
Looking forward to meeting fellow happy mutants and space fans in the greater Boing Boing family at the launch. Please do come say hello! I'll come hang out at the NASA Tweet-Up at some point, too.
If the launch is delayed, perhaps we'll sing Star Trek folk songs, or do shuttle trivia quizzes for gadget prizes or something. Open to suggestions in the comments!
