Space shuttle Endeavour is prepared for launch, as the rotating service Structure is restored to the launch pad, at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday. Molly Riley/Reuters.Six astronauts have said farewell to their families and are ready to take the space shuttle Endeavour on its last flight Friday as hundreds of thousands gather along the Space Coast in applauding the show.
Take-off has been set for almost 10 hours after a another show began in Great Britain - the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Huge shuttle fuel tank was scheduled for a fill at about the same time that they were exchanging de jure.
Endeavour resisted a storm strong Thursday night that dropped hail on a nearby town, and delayed the end launch preparations. But that should not interfere with the entire launch of Friday for 15: 47 p.m. et. Meteorologists predicted a chance of 70 per cent of relatively good weather conditions at take-off.
VIPs watching Endeavour include President Barack Obama and his family - only the third time, attended a President, a space launch and the first time a first family attended one - and as many members of Congress that it is virtually a quorum.
But the invisible star is a member of the Congress: Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the wife of the Commander of the space shuttle Endeavour, Mark Kelly. Giffords was shot in the head of three months ago in an assassination attempt in his hometown of Tucson. A 22 year old suspect is in custody.
State of the Giffords has improved enough that she was able to leave his rehabilitation centre of Houston to attend the launch of her husband - the fourth time it is traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to watch a Shuttle flight.
The crowds should start to hit roads shortly after the fuel meets in the tank of the space shuttle Endeavour. Officials expect between 500,000 and 750,000 people crowd around the coastal communities. Delays of several hours are expected on the roads.
It is the last flight of Endeavour and next to the last flight for the fleet of the space shuttle for 30 years, after more than 852 million kilometres from Earth of the circles. NASA has begun the long retirement for the fleet of shuttle in 2004 spending reduction to spend money on vessels and new space missions.
Launch of the shuttle Endeavour has a thing with no William and Kate: an international scientific project of $ 2 billion. Somewhat overlooked in the attention the Giffords and Kelly and the visit of the President is the main mission of the space shuttle Endeavour: it will place a detector of particle physics of 6 800 kilos on the International Space Station. Experience, who will seek elusive antimatter and the origins of the mysterious dark matter, could change the understanding of man in the cosmos.
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