Shuttle Endeavour lifts off

By Richard Stenger
CNN

Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off Saturday night.

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VIDEO CNN's Miles O'Brien has more on the space shuttle Endeavour's mission to bring a new crew and equipment to the international space station. (November 24) PLAY VIDEO RELATED • Gallery: STS-113 mission guide  • NASA: Human spaceflight

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into space Saturday, carrying a new crew and a $390 million girder to the international space station.

Endeavour lifted off like a bright fireball over Florida in a dramatic evening launch, following weeks of delay due to a shuttle oxygen leak, a bruised shuttle robotic arm and poor weather at emergency landing sites.

Liftoff took place at 7:50 p.m. EST, sending Endeavour on an 11-day mission to space station Alpha. The shuttle is carrying up supplies, equipment and a new crew to replace the three astronauts now living on the station.

The six Americans and one Russian on the shuttle are scheduled to arrive at the space station on Monday.

Three Endeavour passengers, Kenneth Bowersox, Donald Pettit and Nikolai Budarin, will live on the orbiting complex for four months. The trio will replace Valery Korzun, Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev, who have been on the space station since June, one month longer than expected.

Two Endeavour astronauts, Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, the first American Indian in space, will conduct three spacewalks to hook up a new 14-ton girder to the station. The 45-foot-long (14-meter) beam is one of numerous trusses that will comprise the station's exterior backbone, eventually spanning the length of a football field.

The structure will include an exterior railroad that will transport the station's robotic arm and spacewalkers during future station assembly missions.

Endeavour's launch was delayed several times over the past two weeks. An oxygen leak from a cracked hose in the astronauts' oxygen supply system forced the initial flight postponement.

While conducting those repairs, NASA workers inadvertently damaged the shuttle's robotic arm, tearing its insulated cover. The robot arm and oxygen leak have since been repaired.

Then Friday's launch was delayed by rainy weather at the shuttle's emergency landing sites in Spain -- Zaragoza Air Base and Moron Air Base. Weather at Zaragoza cleared enough on Saturday to allow for launch.

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