NASA's Last Night Launch Takes Off From Florida

One female astronaut aboard with crew on the Endeavor

By Genevieve Long
Epoch Times Staff Created: Feb 8, 2010 Last Updated: Feb 8, 2010

Related articles: Science > Space & Astronomy

LAST NIGHT LAUNCH: Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center February 8, 2010 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)

Space Shuttle Endeavor was NASA’s final shuttle night launch at 4:14 a.m. EST Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle had a new module and an attached cupola for the International Space Station that is intended to aid in understanding earth.

READY: Space Shuttle Endeavour astronauts (L-R) mission specialists Robert Behnken, Nicholas Patrick, Stephen Robinson, and Kathryn Hire, with pilot Terry Virts and Commander George Zamka before launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)

On board were Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and mission specialists Kay Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick, and Robert Behnken. The shuttle and crew will be on a 13-day mission. Endeavour is scheduled to dock at its space station at 12:09 a.m. Wednesday over the northern coast of Spain.

Mission specialists Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken will go on three spacewalks during the mission.

Endeavor is the shuttle that was Challenger’s replacement. It began flight operations in 1992. It is named after the first ship commanded by 18th century British explorer James Cook.

The sole female astronaut on board, Kay Hire, is from Mobile, Alabama. She began working at the Kennedy Space Center in 1989, and in 1998 she was part of a seven-member crew that made a 16-day flight aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.

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