CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven blasted into the night sky Friday, bound for the international space station and the most extreme home-makeover project ever attempted by astronauts.
The shuttle rose off its launch pad at 5:55 p.m. MST, right on time, in a flash of light visible for miles around.
“We’re about to get an extreme home makeover. It’s an exciting day,” space-station commander Mike Fincke radioed to Mission Control. “It doesn’t get better than this, my friends.”
Endeavour’s astronauts will double as kitchen and bathroom installers once they arrive at the space station Sunday, hooking up extra cooking and sleeping equipment so the space station’s crew can expand next year. They will deliver a refrigerator as well, giving station residents much-desired cold drinks for a change.
The nighttime launch was a special treat for onlookers. Only about a quarter of all shuttle flights begin in darkness, and this one made for a spectacular show. The nearly full moon provided a breathtaking backdrop.
“The vehicle’s in good shape, the weather’s beautiful,” said launch director Mike Leinbach. “Good luck, Godspeed, and have a Happy Thanksgiving in orbit.”
NASA almost called off the launch at the last minute because a door on the launch pad was not secured by workers. Launch controllers assured everyone that the door would not strike Endeavour and that, at worst, the room used to gain access to the shuttle would sustain damage.
Endeavour and its crew will spend 15 days in orbit, including Thanksgiving. The shuttle holds enough irradiated turkey dinners for everyone, with plenty of space-style candied yams, corn bread stuffing and cranberry-apple dessert.
Filling the payload bay are thousands of pounds of equipment for the space station — enough to allow the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to double the size of the space station’s three-person crew by June.
Among the additions: two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette, exercise machine and NASA’s revolutionary new recycling system designed to turn urine and condensation into drinking water.
