Watch It Live: Endeavour Crew Q&A Chat At Pad

A two-day practice countdown will pick up at Kennedy Space Center today as the Endeavour astronauts prepare for a full-up dress rehearsal for a planned June 13 launch to the International Space Station.

Senior NASA managers also aim to firm up that date in an executive level flight readiness review being held here at KSC today.

We'll have live coverage here in The Flame Trench of two key media events. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of:

++9:20 a.m.: Endeavour mission commander Mark Polansky and his crew will field questions from reporters during an informal Q&A at launch pad 39A. The crew includes pilot Douglas Hurley and mission specialists David Wolf, Tom Marshburn, Christopher Cassidy, Timothy Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette.

++NET 5 p.m.: A post-Flight Readiness Review news conference here at KSC. That's "No Earlier" 5 p.m., which means it almost certainly will come later. But you never know.

The Endeavour astronauts aim to deliver the third and final segment of the Japanese Kibo science research facility during a mission that will feature five spacewalks.

The Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT, is the last major training exercise for astronaut crews prior to launch.

Liftoff is set for 7:17 a.m. June 13.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA image of workers last Sunday preparing to drive the truck that moves the rotating service structure, or RSS. The RSS since was moved around space shuttle Endeavour. It provides protected access to the shuttle for changeout and servicing of payloads at the pad. The structure is supported by a rotating bridge that pivots about a vertical axis on the west side of the pad's flame trench. The RSS rotates through 120 degrees (one-third of a circle) on a radius of 160 feet. Support for the outer end of the bridge is provided by two eight-wheel, motor-driven trucks that move along circular twin rails installed flush with the pad surface. The track crosses the flame trench on a permanent bridge. Endeavour is targeted to launch June 13 on its STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs.