17 May 2011

Liftoff for One Last Endeavour

Today’s post used to be yesterday but what’s happening in the sports that I followed for quite some time has so many record breaking that’s hard to pass. And to break the monotony of writing about sports for the last two weeks, it’s time for us to get out of the earth for one last Endeavour.

Last March, Discovery returns to earth from her own final voyage and leads her two sisters (Endeavour and Atlantis) into retirement. And yesterday, space shuttle Endeavour liftoff at Cape Canaveral to embarked in her last mission in space before her own retirement on June 1. Endeavour is the youngest of the last three surviving space shuttles and is the second to the last space mission.



If you remember the fatal day on 28 January 1986, it’s the day when space shuttle Challenger disintegrates over the Atlantic Ocean just 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. And because of such disastrous event, the creation of Endeavour follows which was also known to be constructed from the spare parts originally meant for Challenger. Shuttle Endeavour’s final flight to the International Space Station was commanded by Mark Kelly, the husband of US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who survive from a fatal shooting to the head.

After Endeavour’s 16-day mission, she will be retired to her final home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Endeavour will return to earth on 1 June, which reportedly is the same day the last space shuttle Atlantis scheduled to move out to the launch pad in preparation for the last and final mission of the fleet of space shuttles.

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