NASA is stepping through a critical propellant load at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A today as the agency continues to press toward a planned March 11 launch of Endeavour on an International Space Station construction mission.
NASA's prime shuttle launch pad is cleared of all but essential personnel as engineers in the Launch Control Center 3.5 miles away pump toxic rocket propellants into storage tanks aboard the shuttle.
The tanks feed two systems on the shuttle orbiter and another on its solid rocket boosters.
On the orbiter, the propellants power the shuttle's Auxiliary Power Units, which generate the hydraulic power needed to steer the ship's three main engines during ascent and control its aerosurfaces, rudder-speedbrake, landing gear, brakes and nosewheel steering systems during atmospheric reentry and landing.
The shuttle's twin Orbital Maneuvering System engines and 44 nose-and-tail steering thrusters also are powered by the propellants.
The Hydraulic Power Units that control the nozzles on the shuttle's two solid rocket boosters run on the hypergolic fuels, which ingnite spontaneously on contact.
The hazardous fuel-loading operation began at midnight and will be completed around 4 p.m. Friday.
Endeavour and seven astronauts are slated to blast off 2:28 a.m. EST March 11. Their prime payload is the first segment of the three-part Japanese science research facility.
A two-armed Canadian robotic manipulator also will be hauled up along with the station's next flight engineer -- Garrett Reisman. Reisman will fly up to the station on Endeavour; current flight engineer Leopold Eyharts of the European Space Agency will return to Earth on the shuttle.
Five spacewalks are planned to install the Japanese lab module and the Canadian robotic manipulator system, and test out shuttle tile repair techniques. The 15-day, 18-hour flight is scheduled to land at 8:35 p.m. March 26.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
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