Crew Arrives, Countdown Begins Today

Today at 10 a.m., NASA will host its first briefing on the status of Endeavour's upcoming launch, which is scheduled for 7:55 p.m. Friday.

The countdown is officially scheduled to begin at 10 p.m.

Also today, around 4 p.m., Endeavour's seven crew members are scheduled to fly into Kennedy Space Center.

You can watch live NASA TV coverage of the status briefing and crew arrival here at The Flame Trench, and check in for blog updates. To watch live, click on the NASA TV image above or on the right side of the page to launch a viewer.

The briefing includes NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding, STS-126 Payload Manager Joe Delai and shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters.

Patrick Air Force Base's 45th Space Wing has not yet released an official launch forecast, but its Web site's weekly planning forecast shows mostly cloudy evening conditions Friday, with a 20 percent chance of rain.

Other pre-launch preparations today include: final vehicle and facility closeouts; check out of backup flight systems; configuration of avionics systems for launch; and review of flight software and backup flight system software.

Additional status briefings are scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday's pre-launch briefing, no earlier than 11 a.m., includes Winters and LeRoy Cain, Mission Management Team chair, and Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director.

Thursday's 10 a.m. countdown status briefing features Winters, DeLai and Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, STS-126 NASA test director.

Endeavour is scheduled to fly a 15-day mission to the International Space Station. The crew will unload more than 14,000 pounds of cargo intended to outfit the station for six person crews, and attempt repairs to the damaged joint that rotates the station's starboard solar wings.

The crew, flying in from Houston in T-38 training jets, includes: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe, and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on images to enlarge them. Above, a Kennedy Space Center camera shows Endeavour on launch pad 39A at left, with a NASA TV playing at right. Below, dressed in their launch-and-entry suits, the STS-126 crew members eagerly exit the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center for a simulated countdown on Oct. 29. Clockwise from left are Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Donald Pettit, and Commander Chris Ferguson. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.