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NASA ’s space shuttle Endeavour is define to launch Friday ( April 29 ) on its final spaceflight , and record crowds – let in President Barack Obama – are ask to see the satellite off .
On itsSTS-134 mission , Endeavour will deliver a $ 1.5 billion astrophysics experimentation to theInternational Space Station . It will also drop off some provision to help fit the orbiting lab for the post - shuttle geological era , which begins after Atlantis ' STS-135 foreign mission this summer .
Shuttle Endeavour in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Here are a few interesting facts about Endeavour as the satellite set toblast into spacefor the last time :
1 . It ’s the baby of the shuttle house
Endeavour is the youngest phallus of NASA ’s space shuttlecock fleet . The artificial satellite was work up as a surrogate for the shuttlecock Challenger , which was lose –in the 1986 stroke that also killed its seven - astronaut crowd .
Congress authorise the structure of Endeavour – NASA ’s fifth spacegoing shuttle – in 1987 , and the orbiter first shell off in 1992 . Friday ’s launch will initiate Endeavour ’s 25th distance mission .
2 . It was call by students
Endeavour is the only shuttle to have beennamed by child . In 1988 , NASA staged a internal contender among simple and secondary schooltime students to hang a name on the new shuttle . The kids were give some guidance – the name had to be based on a historical oceangoing research or geographic expedition watercraft .
Then - prexy George H.W. Bush announced the winning name in May 1989 . The shuttle ’s namesake , H.M.S. Endeavour , was require by Britain ’s James Cook on his epic eighteenth - hundred ocean trip of discovery in the South Pacific ( hence the orbiter ’s British spelling ) .
3 . Endeavour was establish on the tawdry – sort of
While Endeavour debut a bonnie amount of new gearing – it was the first bird to use a pull parachute during landing , for example , and it featured advanced avionics systems – much ofthe artificial satellite was built from spare parts .
These piece of music were leave behind over from the twist of the shuttle Discovery and Atlantis . This recycling ethic serve keep Endeavour’sconstruction costsdown to $ 1.7 billion , according to NASA officials .
4 . It helped lay aside theHubble Space Telescope
Shortly after NASA’sHubble Space Telescopelaunched in 1990 , scientist comment that the instrumental role ’s prototype were a bit blurry . In 1993 , Endeavour launched on its STS-61 flight – the first Hubble service military mission – to fix the problem .
In a series of complex military operation involving multiple spacewalks , Endeavour ’s astronaut crew switch out some of Hubble ’s optics and other gear . before long the scope was seeing the macrocosm in frizzy , sharp detail .
" Without that mission , Hubble would be rather useless in eye socket , " said quad - history expert Robert Pearlman , editor program of collectSPACE.com ( which is a SPACE.com partner ) . Endeavour , he added , " more or less saved Hubble and helped give it the legacy it has today . "
5 . Endeavour brought the International Space Station into being
The International Space Station can date its birth to Endeavour ’s STS-88 mission in December 1998 . This mission took the first American constituent of the station – the Unity node , the passageway that connects the working and sustenance modules – to blank space and joined it to the Russian Zarya module , which was already in field .
" By attaching Unity , it became a space station , and an international one at that , " Pearlman told SPACE.com .
On its STS-134 missionary station , Endeavour will make another pregnant donation to the ISS , redeem the terminal big piece yet to be added to the post from the American side – the $ 1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer physics experiment . [ TV : Endeavour ’s Final Mission ]
" attempt sort of bookends the International Space Station fabrication , " Pearlman said .
6 . It ’s a modification factor
Endeavour ’s second escape , the STS-47 mission back in 1992 , wear out unexampled earth sociologically . Its work party featured the first African - American woman to fly in blank ( Mae Jemison ) , the shuttle ’s first Nipponese astronaut ( Mamoru Mohri ) and the first married span to fly on the same space mission ( Mark Lee and Jan Davis ) .
So Endeavour will have a wad to be gallant of when it returns to Earth in May and prepares to head out to sunny California for retirement . NASA grant the shuttle to the California Science Center in Los Angeles , where crowds will be able to see the agency ’s youngest orbiter up close .
