NASA administrator Charles Bolden plans to announce where the three space shuttle orbiters will be retired April 12. In addition to the AMS, Endeavour will also carry a container of spare hardware and science experiments to help the space station continue running smoothly after the space shuttles retire.Įndeavour will be prepared for permanent display at a museum after it returns to Earth from its final mission. "We're just looking forward to seeing what it shows." "It's going to be facing out into the heavens and see what it can see," Fincke said. Johnson, who piloted Endeavour on the orbiter's STS-123 mission in March 2008 mission specialists Michael Fincke, who has served two long-duration stints living and working onboard the International Space Station Greg Chamitoff, who has logged a total of 183 days in space Andrew Feustel, who was a member of the shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission in May 2009 and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, who has flown twice before to the space station.Įndeavour's primary payload is a science experiment called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a particle detector 16 years in the making that will analyze particles called cosmic rays for what they can tell us about the origins and makeup of the universe. Riding along with Kelly on Endeavour's STS-134 mission are pilot Gregory H. I've given this mission everything I would have if the events of January had not happened." "Having that experience certainly makes it very manageable to be able to handle what's going on in my personal life and handle this mission. "I think it would have been really challenging if this was my first shuttle flight," Kelly said. He said today that she has been improving every day and credited his experience as a veteran of three space missions for helping him get through the grueling training schedule. Kelly made the difficult decision in February to resume training with his crew and push on with the mission despite his wife's injury. Visit for complete coverage of Endeavour's final mission STS-134 or follow us and on Facebook. You can follow senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter ClaraMoskowitz. "In the near term, the focus is really on station, to utilize the heck out of station and at the same time build a concrete plan on how we're going to get out of low-Earth orbit," Gerstenmaier said. Once NASA finishes flying the space shuttles, the agency will shift its focus toward flying missions beyond low-Earth orbit to an asteroid and Mars, as well as continuing to operate the International Space Station to at least 2020. Īfter completing their final missions, Endeavour, Atlantis and their sister orbiter Discovery will be sent to museums around the country for public display.Įndeavour will head to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, while Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center outside of Washington, D.C., and Atlantis will stay here at the Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Center. I think this is a pretty special way to cap this sequence of flights, to bring the AMS up on this flight."Įndeavour's mission is the penultimate flight for NASA's 30-year old space shuttle program, which has only the July liftoff of the shuttle Atlantis remaining before all three of the reusable U.S. "This is a really world class instrument," Gerstenmaier said. The shuttle's main payload, the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which will search for cosmic ray particles to probe the mysteries of dark matter, antimatter and strange matter, is a fitting final mission for the well-traveled orbiter, officials said. I feel real privileged to be considered a part of this team that's pulled this off. They've done a tremendous job of being able to stay focused, watch what's going on. "I want it to feel like this isn't the last mission. "The real tribute is, I really challenge the team and challenge all of us to treat each one of these missions as much as we can, just like a regular mission," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations. That doesn't leave much time for reminiscing about the nearing end of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program. "The crews are going to be very, very busy, very challenging." It's a "very packed mission," said Mike Moses, chair of the shuttle mission management team.
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