Less Than One Week to Launch

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, prelaunch activities are in full swing this week with the official launch countdown to space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission set to begin at 2 a.m. EST Feb. 4.

Teams at Launch Pad 39A will be packing the astronauts' spacesuits into Endeavour today.

Meanwhile, the six STS-130 crew members who will fly to the International Space Station entered quarantine yesterday and now are on a sleep schedule to match their evening and overnight work hours during the mission. They will conduct final integrated ascent training in the motion base simulator today at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and will be flying to Kennedy tomorrow night.

Last week, a water suppression system pipe leaked at Kennedy's Launch Control Center and workers have made progress during the weekend drying walls and carpets. This leak is not expected to hamper the liftoff of Endeavour at 4:39 a.m. EST Feb. 7.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-130

STS-130 crew in training
Image above: STS-130 Pilot Terry Virts (left) and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire and Stephen Robinson participate in a training session in an International Space Station mock-up trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/JSC
› High-res image


› Meet the STS-130 Crew

Endeavour's STS-130 Mission
Commander George Zamka will lead the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. Terry Virts will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

Shuttle Endeavour and its crew will deliver to the space station a third connecting module, the Italian-built Tranquility node and the seven-windowed cupola, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for February 7, 2010, at 4:39 a.m. EST


Additional Resources
› STS-130 Press Kit (8.4 Mb PDF)
› STS-130 Mission Summary (448 Kb PDF)
› Reusable Solid Rocket Motor and Solid Rocket Boosters
› Fact Sheet: Remaining Shuttle Missions (1.3 Mb PDF)

Orbiter Status
› About the Orbiters

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