spacetoday.net: Shuttle lifts off on mission to ISS

Posted: Tue, Mar 11, 2008, 8:18 AM ET (1218 GMT)
STS-123: launch (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Endeavour lifted off early Tuesday on a mission to deliver a laboratory module and robotic arm system to the International Space Station. Endeavour started mission STS-123 with an on-scheduled liftoff at 2:28 am EDT (0628 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center. The rare night launch took place with no significant problems reported during the countdown. Endeavour will spend the next 16 days in orbit, 12 of them docked to the ISS. The seven-man crew will install an element of the Japanese lab module Kibo and Dextre, a Canadian robotic arm system. Five spacewalks are planned for the mission, the most for any shuttle mission to the ISS. One member of the STS-123 crew, Garrett Reisman, will remain on the station after the shuttle departs, with ISS crew member Leopold Eyharts returning on the shuttle.