NASA Preps Endeavour For Launch

Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay doors now are closed for flight and NASA is pressing ahead with preparations for the planned Nov. 14 launch of an International Space Station outfitting and repair mission.

The clam shell-like doors, which each stretch 60 feet, swung shut Thursday at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A, a key milestone in the Endeavour launch campaign.

No major problems are being worked, and the schedule leading up to a 7:55 p.m. EDT Nov. 14 liftoff has extra time built into it in case technical issues crop up.

"We have four days of contingency (time) that we can play with if we need to," said NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "We don't see that we're going to need any of those days right now."

The big-ticket items remaining include the installation and testing of ordnance used to separate the shuttle from its mobile launcher platform, solid rocket boosters and external tank.

The hypergolic fuel systems on the orbiter and Endeavour's twin boosters also need to be pressurized before NASA enters a three-day countdown to launch.

The spacesuits that will be worn during four planned spacewalks on the mission were checked out Thursday. Final close out work in the orbiter's aft engine compartment began today and will continue through next week. Close-out work in the shuttle's airlock also got underway today.

The Endeavour astronauts wrapped up their Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test this week and headed back to Johnson Space Center in Houston, the home of Mission Control and the NASA Astronaut Office.

Led by veteran astronaut Chris Ferguson, the crew includes pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough and Bob Pettit. NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus will fly up to the station aboard Endeavour and replace flight engineer Gregory Chamitoff, who will return to Earth with the shuttle crew.

NASA's 124th shuttle mission is being staged to haul up supplies and equipment required to expand resident crews on the station to six people -- double the current maximum.

The 15-day mission will feature unprecedented repairs to the station's starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. The 10-foot-diameter mechanism is designed to rotate like a Ferris wheel so a set of American solar wings can constantly track the sun as the station circles Earth, maximizing solar energy collection and electrical output.

The SARJ has been largely kept in a stationary position over the course of the last year due to internal damage -- metal shavings -- discovered after high voltage readings prompted ground engineers to shut the mechanism down.

Stefanyshyn-Piper, Kimbrough and Bowen will perform the spacewalks, which primarily are aimed at replacing bearings in the rotary joint as well as cleaning and lubricating it.

The work is expected to provide a temporary fix until a new bearing race ring can be manufactured and hauled up to the station. The installation of the new race ring in 2010 will call for astronauts to partially disassemble the rotary joint so the new race ring can be inserted over the one that is damaged.

Endeavour's three-day launch countdown will begin at 10 p.m. Nov. 11. Landing is scheduled around 2 p.m. Nov. 29.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the image of Endeavour rolling to pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. The second image shows the crew at the 255-foot level of pad 39A during emergency training earlier this week. From left to right are Heidemarie Stefanysyhn-Piper, Steve Bowen, Eric Boe, Chris Ferguson, Sandra Magnus, Bob Pettit and Shane Kimbrough. Photo credir: NASA/Troy Cryder.