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Space Shuttle Endeavour Takes to the Skies

Marcia Dunn, Associated Press

Five spacewalks are planned to help attach the new porch to the Japanese lab, give the space station some new batteries and perform other maintenance.

Endeavour also is carrying up hundreds of pounds of food for the station crew and a fresh station resident, an American who will take the place of the lone Japanese on board.

All of the major space station partners will be represented once Endeavour arrives. The combined crews will have seven Americans, two Canadians, two Russians, one Japanese and one Belgian. All but one are men.

NASA was anxious to get Endeavour flying, given time is running out on the shuttle program.

Only eight shuttle flights remain, including this one, before NASA retires the fleet. The White House wants those missions completed by the end of next year if at all possible. Each one is dedicated to finishing the space station -- now 81 percent complete -- and hauling up supplies and big spare parts that are too big to fly on any other rocketship. Some of those large parts, including a pump and antenna, are flying up on Endeavour.

The lengthy delay means Endeavour will be in orbit on the 40th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, on Monday.

The Endeavour crew, meanwhile, claimed its own record with Wednesday's launch. Rookie astronaut Christopher Cassidy became the 500th person in space.

And Polansky, the skipper, is set to become only the second person to use Twitter in space.

One technical issue during the final stage of the countdown involved a shuttle fuel cell. Engineers worried that the fuel cell -- one of three identical electrical powerplants -- might not be able to operate at low power during the flight, which could cut short the mission. Mission managers cleared the issue shortly before liftoff.

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