Today is scheduled to be the final flight for space shuttle Endeavour. STS-134 will be performing the 36th shuttle flight to the International Space Station(ISS) and its . Endeavour was commissioned by congress in 1987 as a replacement for Challenger after it exploded during take-off. The launch of STS-134 from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL. will complete a 19 year career for the shuttle fleet's youngest bird.
STS-134 is scheduled to launch today, April 29, 2011 at 3:47 p.m. EDT. You can watch the launch coverage on NASA TV on the web or on your local cable provider.
Endeavour's six person crew will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer(AMS) and spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional spare parts for Dextre. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a state-of-the-art, high energy particle physics experiment built in Geneva by a collaboration of 16 different countries. It will search for clues on what the universe is made of and how it began, the origin of dark matter, antimatter and strangelets, pulsars, blazers and gamma ray bursters. The AMS will be able to detect particles that are normally filtered by the Earth's atmosphere, and will also be the only orbiting particle detector. The AMS will provide a whole new area of science for the ISS to explore for years to come.
A string of maintenance spacewalks are scheduled all dedicated to preparing the space station, as best is possible, for the end of the shuttle program later this year.
STS-134 will be a six member crew:
- Mark Kelly - Commander
- Gregory H. Johnson - Pilot
- Michael Fincke - Mission Specialist
- Greg Chamitoff - Mission Specialist
- Andrew Feustel - Mission Specialist
- Roberto Vittori(ESA) - Mission Specialist
It was announced earlier this month that after Endeavour's final flight it will be decommissioned and donated to the California Science Center, a facility only miles away from where it was originally built. Endeavour's Canadarm will be removed and sent to a yet-to-be-determined museum in Canada, while the other two would remain in their respective shuttles.
Join in our excitement and comment below to let us know if you plan to watch this historic launch today!
*** Note as of 4/29/2011 @ 12:35pm EDT: STS-134 launch has been scrubbed for at least 48 hours due to a problem with the heaters on Auxiliary Power Unit(APU) 1.
