Endeavour crew headed toward KSC

The Endeavour astronauts are headed to Kennedy Space Center today, but rainy weather between Houston and the Florida peninsula is holding up their arrival at NASA's shuttle launch site.

Led by veteran astronaut Dom Gorie, the crew includes pilot Gregory H. Johnson and mission specialists Richard Linnehan, Robert Behnken, Michael Foreman and Takeo Doi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman will ride up to the International Space Station aboard Endeavour, and European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts, now serving as a flight engineer on the outpost, will return to Earth aboard Endeavour.

The astronauts are headed to KSC to take part in a two-day practice countdown -- a dress rehearsal for their planned March 11 launch on a mission to deliver the first section of the Japanese Kibo science research facility to the outpost.

A two-armed Canadian robot also will be hauled up to the station. The Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, also known as Dexter, will take on maintenance work that would otherwise have to be done by spacewalking astronauts.

The crew had been scheduled to arrive at the Shuttle Landing Facility around 9:45 a.m., but the astronauts are making a pit stop to avoid some bad weather between Ellington Airfield near Johnson Space Center and KSC.

Now they are expected to arrive around 11 a.m. NASA TV is not covering the event live, but we'll post an update from the FLORIDA TODAY blockhouse at the Launch Complex 39 Press Site after the arrival.

Flying in sleek white-and-blue Northrup T-38 Talons, Gorie is leading the way to KSC. You can track his flight real time by clicking here: Track The Crew.

You can also catch the crew here in The Flame Trench early Sunday. We'll be webcasting live NASA TV coverage of the astronauts holding an informal Q&A with the NASA Press Corps at 9:20 a.m. Sunday.

The Endeavour crew will be taking part in emergency training at launch pad 39A, where the shuttle is being readied for flight. They'll board the spaceship early Monday for the last three hours of a practice countdown that also involves the NASA launch control team here at KSC.