spacetoday.net: Endeavour lifts off

Posted: Wed, Jul 15, 2009, 10:56 PM ET (0256 GMT)
STS-127: launch (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Endeavour finally launched Wednesday afternoon on a long-delayed mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour lifted off on mission STS-127 at 6:03 pm EDT (2203 GMT) Wednesday after a problem-free countdown. Weather, which scrubbed launch attempts on Sunday and Monday, was not an issue as storms earlier in the day cleared the vicinity of the launch site well ahead of the launch. During the launch several pieces of foam and/or ice appeared to strike the orbiter, possibly gouging tiles on the orbiter's underside, but shuttle managers said that the impacts don't appear to be as bad as experienced during the previous shuttle flight, which landed without incident. Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station Friday at 1:55 pm EDT (1755 GMT). During the mission the STS-127 crew will install an experiment "porch" to the station's Kibo Japanese lab module, and also swap out one member of the station's six-person crew.