Shuttle Endeavour launches on sixth try
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- After more than a month's delay, space shuttle Endeavour and seven astronauts thundered into orbit Wednesday on a flight to the international space station, hauling up a veranda for Japan's enormous lab and looking to set a crowd record.
Success came on launch try No. 6, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the liftoff of man's first moon landing.
Endeavour blasted off a little after 6 p.m. from its seaside pad — the same one used to launch Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 — a welcome sight for shuttle workers who had to overcome hydrogen gas leaks last month and, since the weekend, thunderstorms.
The skies finally cleared, allowing commander Mark Polansky and his crew to embark on their 16-day adventure. One more holdup and they would have tied a record for the most shuttle launch delays.
"The weather is finally cooperating, so it is now time to fly," launch director Pete Nickolenko called out to the crew. "Persistence pays off."
Replied Polansky: "Endeavour's patiently waited for this. We're ready to go, and we're going to take all of you with us on a great mission."
Endeavour soared through thin clouds and was visible, gleaming in the sunlight, for three minutes. The exhaust plume and its shadow linked together to resemble a high arc in the sky.
The astronauts will catch up Friday with the space station, which was soaring more than 220 miles above the Pacific at launch time. When they do, it will be the first time 13 people are together in space. Ten is the previous record. The doubling of the space station crew a few months ago, to six, makes the new record possible.
The shuttle will remain docked at the space station for nearly two weeks. During that time, the shuttle astronauts will help install the third and final piece of the Japanese space station lab, a porch for outdoor experiments. The first two parts went up on shuttle flights last year.
Japan's $1 billion laboratory is the largest and fanciest of the three up there. It even has its own robot arm which will be used for the first time, during the coming days, to move a research payload.
