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Endeavour Blasts Off

August 9, 2007 on 6:08 pm | In Astronomy, International Space Station, Spaceflight |

Space shuttle Endeavour has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre for a new mission to the International Space Station. The booster rockets successfully separated about two and a half minutes after the shuttle blasted off. The purpose of Endeavour’s mission is to install a new beam for the station’s support structure. Astronauts have to replace a faulty gyroscope needed to keep the outpost in orbit. However it is the crew that has appeared to have captured the public’s imagination because the five-man, two-woman crew includes an elementary school teacher. Barbara Morgan is the first teacher to join a space mission since the failed 1986 Challenger mission. Ms Morgan trained 22 years ago as the backup to Challenger crew member Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher who died on the failed 1986 Challenger mission. Civilian fliers were then banned from shuttles after the Challenger disaster but Ms Morgan has been with the astronaut corps since 1998.