Space Shuttle Endeavour
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American
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Soviet and
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Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105), is the fifth and final, and therefore, the youngest and newest, operational NASA space shuttle to be built. She is much younger than the other four shuttles. As of 2006, Columbia would have been 25; Challenger would have been 23; Discovery, which is now the oldest shuttle remaining in the fleet, is 22 (she matched Columbia’s age when she, Columbia, burned up and disintegrated during reentry in 2003); Atlantis, which is the second-youngest shuttle in the fleet, is 21. Endeavour, however, is only 14, seven years younger than Atlantis (she launched in 1985, and Endeavour launched in 1992). At the time that Columbia was destroyed, Endeavour was only half her age! She was only 11 years old. In addition, as of 2006, Enterprise is 29 years old; a difference of 15 years.
The United States Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace Challenger, which was lost in an accident in 1986. Structural spares from the construction of shuttles Discovery and Atlantis were used in its assembly. The decision to build Endeavour was favored over refitting Enterprise because it was cheaper.
Endeavour was delivered by Rockwell International in May 1991 and first launched a year later, in May 1992. Rockwell International claimed that they had made no profit on Space Shuttle Endeavour, in spite of it costing 2.2 Billion Dollars USD. On her first mission, she captured and redeployed the stranded INTELSAT VI communications satellite. The Space Shuttle wasn't designed to retrieve the satellite, however, which created many repair challenges. In 1993, she made the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour was withdrawn from service for eight months in 1997 for a retrofit, including installation of a new airlock. In December 1998, she delivered the Unity Module to the International Space Station.
Endeavour was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools. The orbiter is named after the HM Bark Endeavour, the ship commanded by 18th century explorer James Cook; the name also honored Endeavour, the Command Module of Apollo 15. Due to this origin, the name is spelled in the British English manner, rather than the American English spelling of "Endeavor".
As of August 2005, Endeavour is still in her Orbiter Major Modification period, which began in December 2003 and is expected to last through sometime in 2006. She is currently in the Orbiter Prossesing Facility Bay 2, along with her sister Atlantis, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Upgrades and Features
Endeavour features new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities. Most of this equipment was later incorporated into the other three orbiters during out-of-service major inspection and modification programs. Endeavour's upgrades include:
- A 40-foot diameter drag chute that is expected to reduce the orbiter's rollout distance by 1,000 to 2,000 feet.
- The plumbing and electrical connections needed for Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) modifications to allow up to 28-day missions (although a 28-day mission was never attempted before; the current record is 17, which was set with the Columbia orbiter), although it nonetheless possible that she, as well as her sisters, Discovery and Atlantis, may spend 28 days in space sometime in the future before 2010, which is the shuttle's planned retirement year.
- Updated avionics systems that include advanced general purpose computers, improved inertial measurement units and tactical air navigation systems, enhanced master events controllers and multiplexer-demultiplexers, a solid-state star tracker and improved nose wheel steering mechanisms.
- An improved version of the Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) that provide power to operate the Shuttle's hydraulic systems.
Flights
Space Shuttle Endeavour has flown 19 flights, spent 206.60 days in space, completed 3,259 orbits, and flown 85,072,077 miles (136,910,237 km) in total, as of February 2003. After August 2005 and as of February 2006, she has not been in space for more than three years.
| Date | Designation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 May 7 | STS-49 | Capture and redeploy Intelsat VI. First three-man EVA and longest US EVA since Apollo 17 |
| 1992 September 12 | STS-47 | Spacelab mission J |
| 1993 January 13 | STS-54 | Deploy TDRS-F |
| 1993 June 21 | STS-57 | Spacelab experiments. Retrieve European Retrievable Carrier |
| 1993 December 2 | STS-61 | First Hubble Space Telescope service mission |
| 1994 April 9 | STS-59 | Space Radar Laboratory experiments |
| 1994 September 30 | STS-68 | Space Radar Laboratory experiments |
| 1995 March 30 | STS-67 | Spacelab Astro-2 experiments |
| 1995 September 7 | STS-69 | Wake Shield Facility and other experiments |
| 1996 January 11 | STS-72 | Retrieve Japanese Space Flyer Unit |
| 1996 May 19 | STS-77 | Spacelab experiments |
| 1998 January 22 | STS-89 | Rendezvous with Mir space station and astronaut exchange |
| 1998 December 4 | STS-88 | International Space Station assembly mission |
| 2000 February 11 | STS-99 | Shuttle Radar Topography Mission experiments |
| 2000 November 30 | STS-97 | International Space Station assembly mission |
| 2001 April 19 | STS-100 | International Space Station assembly mission |
| 2001 December 5 | STS-108 | International Space Station rendezvous and astronaut exchange |
| 2002 June 5 | STS-111 | International Space Station rendezvous and astronaut exchange |
| 2002 November 23 | STS-113 | International Space Station assembly mission and astronaut exchange |
Endeavour in fiction
- The Space Shuttle Endeavour was briefly shown in the 2003 film The Core.
Decommissioning of Space Shuttle Endeavour
- Accoriding to NASA, Space Shuttle Endeavour will be decommissioned in 2010, along with Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA expects to have a reusable launch vehicle ready no later than 2014.