NASA’s shuttle Endeavour has made its final night launch, and with only four more planned trips, begins its final wind down. Taking off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, the Endeavour is on a mission taking a window module and connecting node to the International Space Station.
Lasting a planned 13 days, the shuttle launched 24 hours late, after Florida’s coast was cast with a blanket of cloud. However, as the shuttle took off to clear skies, Mike Leinbach, flight director said “It lit up the Kennedy Space Center. I saw it very clearly through solid rocket booster separation, and then it disappeared behind some clouds and I got kinda disappointed. But then it broke out of those clouds and that’s when I was able to see it all the way out to seven minutes in flight. For the last night launch, it treated us well.”
Of particular importance to the European Space Agency (Esa), the latest mission contains modules both of which were made by Italian firm Thales Alenia Space. Whilst the node will house core-life supporting systems in addition to a treadmill for astronaut exercise, the large window will provide space farers access to guiding robots outside of the station. Created in a shape of a dome, the window is the biggest ever built for space use and has an additional, possibly greater function, as the window’s Esa based project manager Philippe Deloo explained. “The psychological effect of being able to look outside, to look at the Mother Earth, is something that has long been put forward as an argument to have windows on the station,” Mr Deloo said.
