Don’t miss the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour scheduled for tonight at 7:39 p.m. Eastern Time. HDNet will start covering the event at 7:00 p.m. ET, taking place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA TV started coverage yesterday with the pre-launch press conference and rotating service structure retraction.) The launch is especially significant in that it will mark the 500th person in space.
The crew of the Endeavour are on a 16-day mission to work on constructing the International Space Station. The six-member crew will join 7 other astronauts already on the Space Station, and make it the first time the station has been fully manned.
The goal of mission STS-127 is to finish assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex, an external shelf that will be used to expose materials to space environment. The construction will require 5 spacewalks.
NASA’s last couple of shuttle launches have suffered delays, so here’s hoping this one goes on as scheduled.
Update: The shuttle has launched but not without issues: Read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/science/space/16shuttle.html?em
FYI: This launch was postponed due to lightning storms. The next attempt at launch will be July 13 at 6:51 p.m. EDT.