Category: Endeavour

NASA donates the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour, stripped of working engines and other vital equipment, to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The last shuttle to be built, construction on Endeavour began in 1988 from spare parts to replace the destroyed Challenger; Endeavour lifted off for the first time in 1992, ultimately flying 25 missions, including many of the International Space Station construction missions. This also marks the final flight of the modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, which flew for the first time in 1977.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on its final flight into orbit, carrying an alpha magnetic spectrometer instrument and supplies to the International Space Station during a 16-day mission. This is Endeavour’s 25th and final launch. The crew for this mission consists of Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg Johnson, and mission specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 97th shuttle flight, and the only one on the 2000 launch schedule not devoted to construction of the International Space Station. Instead, Endeavour carries out an 11-day radar topography mission, though the 200-foot radar mast deployed from the cargo bay changes Endeavour’s center of mass and necessitates an unusually high usage of the orbiter’s fuel to keep the vehicle and payload properly oriented. Endeavour’s 14th crew is Commander Kevin Kregel, Pilot Dominic Gorie, and mission specialists Janet Kavandi, Janice Voss, Mamoru Mohri and Gerhard Thiele.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 77th shuttle mission, a ten-day flight to perform experiments in the cargo-bay-mounted SPACEHAB module, and a test of a free-flying inflatible antenna system. The crew also communicates with astronaut Shannon Lucid aboard Mir, though Endeavour and Mir are in different orbits. Aboard Endeavour for her 11th flight are Commander John Casper, Pilot Curtis Brown, and mission specialists Daniel Bursch, Mario Runco, Marc Garneau and Andrew Thomas.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 74th flight of the shuttle program. Over nine days, Endeavour’s crew retrieves a Japanese satellite for return to Earth while deploying a NASA experiment which flies as far as 45 miles away from the shuttle for two days before it, too, is retrieved. More spacewalk techniques and technologies are tried out for future space station construction. Aboard Endeavour for her tenth flight are Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Brent Jett, and mission specialists Leroy Chiao, Daniel Barry, Winston Scott and Koichi Wakata.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 71st shuttle flight, an 11-day mission to conduct solar wind experiments and test out new spacewalking techniques and space suit revisions for future construction of the International Space Station. Aboard Endeavour for her ninth flight are Commander David Walker, Pilot Kenneth Cockrell, Payload Commander James Voss, and mission specialists James Newman and Michael Gernhardt.

NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on the longest flight of the shuttle program to date – over 16 and a half days – with the ASTRO astronomy experiment package mounted in the cargo bay. Some astronomical observations on this mission are conducted in tandem with the Hubble Space Telescope. Aboard Endeavour for her eighth flight are Commander Stephen Oswald, Pilot William Gregory, Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Wendy Lawrence, and payload specialists Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the shuttle program’s 65th mission. The eleven-day flight is a second round of space radar experiments, using a cargo-bay-mounted radar system that flew earlier in 1994 aboard Endeavour. The crew for this flight consists of Commander Michael Baker, Pilot Terrence Wilcutt, Payload Commander Thomas Jones, and mission specialists Steven Smith, Daniel Bursch and Peter Wisoff.

NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on an 11-day mission to carry the Space Radar Laboratory experiment into orbit. The radar systems map sites on Earth and test other applications for orbital radar. Aboard Endeavour for her sixth flight are Commander Sidney Gutierrez, Pilot Kevin Chilton, Payload Commander Linda Godwin, and mission specialists Jay Apt, Michael Clifford and Thomas Jones.

NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission lasting almost ten days to test the SPACEHAB pressurized lab module. A long-term exposure experiment is retrieved for ESA, though a spacewalk must be undertaken when its antennae fail to stow themselves away automatically for insertion into the cargo bay. Aboard Endeavour for her fourth flight into orbit are Commander Ronald Grabe, Pilot Brian Duffy, Payload Commander G. David Low, and mission specialists Nancy Sherlock, Peter Wisoff and Janice Voss.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 53rd shuttle flight, a six-day mission to launch the fifth TDRS (Tracking & Data Relay Satellite) and perform assorted experiments. A five-hour spacewalk is conducted in the cargo bay to practice spacewalking techniques for future missions. Aboard Endeavour for her third flight are Commander John Casper, Pilot Donald McMonagle, and mission specialists Mario Runco, Gregory Harbaugh and Susan Helms.

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 50th space shuttle mission (and its own first return flight to orbit). Carrying the Spacelab module in its cargo bay, Endeavour hosts the first Japanese shuttle astronaut and the first African-American woman in space. Over eight days, the crew performs various science experiments. Endeavour is flown by Commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson, Pilot Curtis Brown, Payload Commander Mark Lee, missions specialists Jan Davis, Jay Apt and Mae Jemison, and payload specialist Mamoru Mohri.

Space Shuttle Endeavour leaves Earth for the first time, carrying a crew of seven to orbit on the 47th shuttle mission. Over nearly nine days, three spacewalks are taken up with the tricky and dangerous task of capturing a four-and-a-half-ton communications satellite into Endeavour’s cargo bay to repair and relaunch it. (The satellite, Intelsat VI, had been stranded in the wrong orbit since its 1990 launch aboard a Titan rocket.) The record-setting spacewalks involved – each lasting over seven hours and marking the first time three astronauts have operated outside their vehicle – force NASA to cancel one of two experimental EVAs to test space station construction techniques. Endeavour’s first crew consists of Commander Daniel Brandenstein, pilot Kevin Chilton, and mission specialists Pierre Thuot, Kathryn Thornton, Richard Hieb, Thomas Akers and Bruce Melnick.

At Rockwell International, a spare Space Shuttle crew module is assembled alongside components intended for the orbiters Discovery and Atlantis, and though the spare isn’t intended for a specific shuttle yet to be built, it will find a purpose in the wake of the 1986 Challenger disaster: the spare crew module will become one of many completed shuttle spares that will eventually be assembled in the late 1980s as the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Challenger’s replacement and the last space shuttle constructed.