Space Shuttle Endeavour

Despite having delays, Space Shuttle Endeavour will blastoff from Florida on March 11 at 2:28 AM EST. The crew includes two of NASA's most experienced fliers, four rookies and Japan's Takao Doi, who participated in a mission in 1997. The crew will fly on a 16-day mission.

By: Sara Smith
Feb 29, 2008, 2:54 PM EST

Space Shuttle Endeavour received the green light from NASA to lift-off on March 11. Endeavour will make the first of three flights to deliver a Japanese research complex to the International Space Station.

The shuttle will blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center at 2:28 a.m. EST.

Despite shuttle delays, the flight would represent the quickest turn-around between shuttle missions since NASA resumed launches after Columbia was destroyed during re-entry.

The crew includes two of NASA's most experienced fliers, four rookies and Japan's Takao Doi, who participated in a shuttle research mission in 1997.

The shuttle will spend two weeks at the space station to install a storage room for Japan's Kibo laboratory complex and outfit the station's Canadian-built robot arm with a mechanical hand.

Endeavour's mission will also include a test of a heat shield repair technique NASA wants to officially present before a servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope in late August or early September.

Columbia was destroyed, and its crew of seven killed, because its heat shield was damaged on lift-off.