![]() ![]() STS-134 by Endeavour was expected to be the final flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. NASA awarded the shuttle to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where crowds will be able to see the agency's youngest orbiter up close. Atlantis embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011. ![]() So Endeavour will have a lot to be proud of when it returns to Earth in May and prepares to head out to sunny California for retirement. Its crew featured the first African-American woman to fly in space (Mae Jemison), the shuttle's first Japanese astronaut (Mamoru Mohri) and the first married couple to fly on the same space mission (Mark Lee and Jan Davis). "Endeavour sort of bookends the International Space Station assembly," Pearlman said.Įndeavour's second flight, the STS-47 mission back in 1992, broke new ground sociologically. On its STS-134 mission, Endeavour will make another significant contribution to the ISS, delivering the final big piece yet to be added to the station from the American side - the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer physics experiment. "By attaching Unity, it became a space station, and an international one at that," Pearlman told. This recycling ethic helped keep Endeavour's construction costs down to $1.7 billion, according to NASA officials. ![]() These pieces were left over from the construction of the shuttles Discovery and Atlantis. While Endeavour debuted a fair amount of new gear - it was the first shuttle to use a drag parachute during landing, for example, and it featured advanced avionics systems - much of the orbiter was built from spare parts. Endeavour was built on the cheap - sort of The orbiter was built as a replacement for the shuttle Challenger, which was lost in the 1986 accident that also killed its seven. Endeavour is the youngest member of NASAs space shuttle fleet. Endeavour, was commanded by Britain's James Cook on his epic 18th-century voyage of discovery in the South Pacific (hence the orbiter's British spelling).ģ. Here are a few interesting facts about Endeavour as the orbiter prepares to blast into space for the last time: 1. Bush announced the winning name in May 1989. The kids were given some guidance - the name had to be based on a historic oceangoing research or exploration vessel. In 1988, NASA staged a national competition among elementary and secondary school students to hang a name on the new shuttle. Endeavour is the only shuttle to have been named by children. ![]()
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