Astronauts set to 'Meet The Press'

Veteran NASA astronaut Dom Gorie and his six Endeavour crewmates will be out at launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center this morning, getting familiar with the emergency escape system at the towering gantry and meeting with the NASA Press Corps.

Journalists from around the world, including a large contingent from Japan, will quiz the astronauts on their upcoming International Space Station construction mission, and you can watch live coverage right here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the link below the image above to launch our NASA TV viewer, and refresh this page for periodic updates. The informal Q&A session -- a standard prelaunch media event -- will be webcast live starting around 9:20 a.m. EST.

The crew includes pilot Gregory H. Johnson and mission specialists Richard Linnehan, Robert Behnken, Michael Foreman, Garrett Reisman and Takao Doi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The astronauts would kiddingly tell you that the prime payload for the mission is Reisman. He'll be flying up to the station aboard Endeavour to serve a stint as a flight engineer. He'll replace European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who will be flying back to Earth aboard the shuttle.

The Endeavour crew will deliver the first section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility and a two-armed Canadian robot known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, or Dextre. You'll probably here the astronauts refer to it by its acronym, SPDM. S-P-D-M.

Built by the Canadian Space Agency, by far the world leader in robotic manipulator systems for space exploration, Dextre will spell spacewalking astronauts at the station, taking on maintenance chores outside the outpost that otherwise would have to be done by its human counterparts.

The mission is tentatively set for launch at 2:31 a.m. March 11. Senior NASA managers will meet Thursday and Friday in a flight readiness review, and a firm date will be established at that time. The March 11 date, however, is expected to stick as long as launch preparations continue on schedule.

A two-day practice countdown just got under way here at KSC. Call to stations in the storied Launch Control Center across the street from our FLORIDA TODAY blockhouse at the Launch Complex 39 Press Site was just a few minutes ago -- at 7:30 a.m. EST.

The crew's emergency egress training will start at the pad at 10 a.m. EST, and final payload closeouts are scheduled to pick up at 5 p.m. EST.

Gorie and his crew will don partial-pressure launch-and-entry suits and head out to the launch pad about 7:45 a.m. Monday. They'll climb aboard Endeavour a half-hour later for the remainder of the practice countdown -- a launch-day dress rehearsal that will culminate with a T-Zero at 11 a.m. Monday.