Shuttle lifts off at last after five delays

Space station arrival set for Friday
The astronauts will catch up Friday afternoon with the space station, which was soaring more than 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Pacific at launch time. When they do, it will be the first time 13 people are together in space. Ten is the previous record. The doubling of the space station crew a few months ago, to six, makes the new record possible.

The shuttle will remain docked at the space station for nearly two weeks. During that time, the shuttle astronauts will help install the third and final piece of the Japanese space station lab, a porch for outdoor experiments. The first two parts went up on shuttle flights last year.

Japan's $1 billion laboratory is the largest and fanciest of the three up there. It even has its own robot arm that will be used for the first time, during the coming days, to move research payloads.

Shuttle managers say robot arm operations will be especially intricate on this flight, involving all three of the available mechanical devices.

Five spacewalks are planned to help attach the new porch to the Japanese lab, give the space station some new batteries and perform other maintenance.

Endeavour also is carrying up hundreds of pounds of food for the station crew — as well as other supplies and a fresh station resident, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, who will take the place of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

All of the major space station partners will be represented when Endeavour arrives. The combined crews will have seven Americans, two Canadians, two Russians, one Japanese and one Belgian. All but one are men.

Bolden confirmed as NASA chief
NASA was anxious to get Endeavour flying, given that time is running out on the shuttle program. The space agency, at least, finally has a new administrator to oversee everything. Former shuttle commander Charles Bolden was confirmed by the Senate less than two hours after Endeavour's liftoff. He fills a vacancy left by Michael Griffin's departure in January.

Only eight shuttle flights remain, including this one, before NASA retires the fleet. The White House wants those missions completed by the end of next year if possible. Each one is dedicated to finishing the space station — now 81 percent complete — and hauling up supplies and big spare parts that are too big to fly on any other rocketship. Some of those large parts, including a pump and antenna, are flying up on Endeavour.

The lengthy delay means Endeavour will be in orbit on the 40th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, on Monday.

The Endeavour crew, meanwhile, claimed its own record with Wednesday's launch. Rookie astronaut Christopher Cassidy became the 500th person in space. And Polansky is set to become the first shuttle commander to use Twitter in space.

One technical issue late in the countdown involved a shuttle fuel cell. Engineers worried that the fuel cell — one of three identical electrical power plants — might not be able to operate at low power during the flight, which could cut short the mission. Mission managers cleared the issue shortly before liftoff.

AP writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report.

More on Endeavour | international space station

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