KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA managers on April 27 cleared Endeavour for a launch attempt at 3:47 p.m. EDT April 29 on STS-134, the last mission for the orbiter designated OV-105, with one flight to follow before the shuttle program ends.
“Endeavour’s in great shape. We had an easy call to say that we’re ready to go. We’re looking forward to Friday’s launch,” says Mike Moses, launch integration manager.
The weather outlook for the flight is good, with just a 20% chance that crosswinds would violate launch constraints.
In addition to reviewing the shuttle’s technical readiness to fly and the state of its primary payloads, managers reviewed potential operational effects from the planned visit of President Barack Obama, who is coming to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch.
“We have folks both on the Air Force side and on our side working to understand those impacts, and they should be fairly benign to us, other than the amount of entourage that comes with the president and aircraft arriving at the launch center,” Moses told reporters.
Plans about where Air Force One will land and when it will arrive have yet to be determined.
“A lot of things you learn when you deal with presidential visits. One is that you’re never quite sure what the final plan is until it’s done,” says Launch Director Mike Leinbach.
“We’re taking all options under consideration and deconflicting every one of them.
“We’ve told them we prefer that Air Force One is not on the SLF [Shuttle Landing Facility], but the final decision comes from them,” Leinbach adds.
Endeavour is carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector, which will be installed on the right side of the space station’s central truss, and an Express Logistics Carrier with spare parts for the station.
The crew is led by Navy Capt. Mark Kelly and includes pilot Gregory Johnson, flight engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency, lead spacewalker Andrew Feustel, and mission specialists Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff.
Working in pairs, Feustel, Fincke and Chamitoff are scheduled to make a total of four spacewalks to install experiments and perform maintenance tasks outside the station. The outings are the final spacewalks planned in the shuttle program.
With just two missions remaining before the 30-year shuttle program ends this summer, the number of spectators gathering around Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch is growing. Officials estimate that between 500,000 and 750,000 people will be in surrounding communities for the April 29 launch. The heavy traffic could be a potential operational issue in case weather or technical problems delay the mission.
“Driving home is going to be a challenge and that’s going to factor into our decision this time, more so than ever in the past,” Leinbach says.
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