Article Posted on : - Nov 13, 2008

STS-126 Commander Chris Ferguson and Pilot Eric Boe simulated shuttle landings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the upcoming mission. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

WASHINGTON (BNS): All preparations for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour set to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 7:55 pm EST are going on as per the schedule. Endeavour and its crew will return back to the Earth after a 15-day stay in space.

STS-126 is on a mission to install new crew equipment inside the International Space Station and service the solar array joints of the laboratory.

During the mission the crew of space shuttle Endeavour and the space station will exchange crew members. Sandra Magnus will swap places with current space station resident Greg Chamitoff. The Endeavour crew will also conduct four spacewalks.

NASA scientists said that working in teams of two, astronauts will emerge from the space station’s Quest airlock and work on the two large joints that turn the station’s massive solar array ‘wings’. They are to service the starboard side joint and perform preventative maintenance on the port side joint, they said.

The STS-126 crew will also install new crew quarters, a galley, waste water recycling system and oxygen generator inside the space station. The equipment has been packed inside refrigerator-sized racks that require forklifts to lift them on Earth. But in space, a single astronaut can move a rack around with ease, NASA said.

Meanwhile, Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson and Pilot Eric Boe had several practice landings aboard NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft overnight.

As part of the preparations, launch controllers loaded oxygen and hydrogen into the fuel cells aboard space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday evening as the countdown to the launch of STS-126 moves ahead smoothly. The fuel cells convert the chemicals into electricity while Endeavour is in space, NASA said.