NASA Announces Last Mission to Space Station

**Gamorade** Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:58 pm

What do you think about this?

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — An electrical problem forced NASA on Friday to postpone the launching of the shuttle Endeavour, four hours before it was to begin a two-week mission to the International Space Station.

Officials announced that the launching, which had been set for 3:47 p.m., would be delayed until Monday afternoon at the earliest while technicians tried to fix the problem, which involves the system that controls the movement of the shuttle's engines and flaps during ascent and re-entry. But officials said that the takeoff might be delayed further.

"Today the orbiter is not ready to fly," said Michael D. Leinbach, shuttle launch director.

The postponement frustrated a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people who were gathering for the start of the second-to-last mission in the shuttle program. Among the intended spectators was President Barack Obama, who had not yet arrived when the decision was made.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, the wife of the mission commander, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, had arrived earlier in the week to watch the launching; she was severely wounded in a shooting in January. There was no immediate word as to whether Giffords would remain in Florida or return to the Houston rehabilitation hospital where she has been recovering.

The decision also frustrated Kelly and the rest of the six-man crew; they had gone through final medical checks and donned their bright orange flight suits and were riding in a van to the launch pad when the postponement was announced.

The Endeavour crew is to install a $2 billion particle-physics experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, at the space station, where it will search for evidence of the elusive "dark matter" that is thought to be ubiquitous in the universe. The shuttle will also deliver spare parts to the station and will leave behind its long boom that is used to inspect the spacecraft for damage after launching.