US Space Shuttle Launches
The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour is on its way to the International Space Station.
NASA launched the shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center on the Atlantic coast in Florida early Monday. A Sunday morning launch had been called off because of poor weather at the launch site.
The six astronauts aboard the shuttle arescheduled to deliver parts to the International Space Station for the last major construction operation on the orbiting outpost, which is almost complete.
Endeavour is carrying a connecting node, Tranquility Node 3, and the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center that provides a 360-degree view around the International Space Station.
Following this 13-day mission, four more shuttle flights are planned before the fleet is retired at the end of this year.
U.S. President Barack Obama, in the budget he presented to Congress last week, has canceled the space agency’s plans to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
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