Endeavour Crew Arrives at Space Center for Monday Launch

PC Magazine: Endeavour Crew Arrives at Space Center for Monday Launch
The space shuttle Endeavour crew has returned to Kennedy Space Center in preparation for Monday's re-scheduled launch.

The six astronauts for the mission known as STS-134 arrived in Florida via a shuttle training aircraft at 9am Eastern.

"It's great to be back," shuttle commander Mark Kelly said in a statement. "We really appreciate all the hard work by the team that's worked over the last couple of weeks to get shuttle Endeavour ready."

"I can't think of a more perfect way to spend my birthday then to come here with my crew a get ready to fly Endeavour next week," said Endeavour's pilot Greg H. Johnson.

Later today, Kelly and Johnson will practice landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft, which are Gulfstream II jets modified to handle like a space shuttle, according to NASA.

Mission specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori will also travel to the International Space Station via Endeavour for the 14-day mission. Endeavour is scheduled to depart at 8:56am Monday, May 16. Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters has forecasted a 70 percent chance of having good weather.

Endeavour was initially scheduled to launch on Friday, April 29, but just prior to the scheduled 3:47pm launch, NASA discovered that Endeavour's auxiliary power unit had failed. It was so late in the game that the mission's astronauts were already en route to the shuttle. NASA quickly shut things down, and upon further inspection, discovered a problem with a box of switches that controls power feeds, known as a load control assembly-2 (LCA-2). NASA removed the malfunctioning box last week and replaced it with a new one.

Among the items Endeavour will carry to the ISS is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS). It will be used to measure cosmic rays to gain a better understanding of cosmic radiation; a challenge for long-duration spaceflight. It might also help uncover the mysteries involved in dark matter or missing antimatter, NASA said. The 15,000-pound AMS is expected to be operational for the rest of the station's life; at least 10 years.