NASA announced the date scheduled for the release of the United States space shuttle Endeavour, which will take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida to complete its tasks at the International Space Station.

The lift off will take place on November 14, at 8:55 p.m. EST (00:55 GMT November 15) and will return on November 29, touching down on Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The team involved in the mission is composed of commander Christopher J. Ferguson, pilot Eric A. Boe, specialists Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Stephen G. Bowen, Robert S. Kimbrough and also astronauts Donald R. Pettit and Sandra H. Magnus. One of the astronauts will replace Gregory Chamitoff, who has been on duty on the space station since this year’s June.

The space shuttle will carry additional equipment needed for enlarging the station’s crew from three to six members, and also spare hardware, devices for the regenerative life support system (a new water reclamation system, and also an extra kitchen, toilet and sleeping compartments) and certain equipment needed for the tests planned. The entire cargo weights more than seven tons and the transfer will be carried out with a lot of attention.

During the 15-day flight, the astronauts will have to conduct four spacewalks, needed to repair a solar wing rotating joint which has been hindering energy production for more than a year now.

Even though the Hubble repair mission was rescheduled for this month, NASA’s officials had to reprogram it again for next year because of the difficulty in manufacturing the spare parts needed for the fix. The delay will allow NASA to focus on Endeavour’s launch and make sure that everything will go ahead according to plan.

NASA's space operations chief, Mr. Bill Gerstenmaier, explained that the only difference of opinion in the entire review involved pump inspections in the shuttle’s main engines. This new inspection will be carried out in the future before the engines are installed, but he said that there was no urgency for doing it before Endeavour's upcoming flight. He also added that the Hubble repair mission could be inserted anywhere in the space shuttle flight lineup, with very little if any impact on the space station operations. There are still ten shuttle missions planned before retiring the entire fleet in 2010.

Space shuttle Endeavour was named after the first ship commanded by 18th century British explorer James Cook. He took a voyage in 1768, sailing into the South Pacific and around Tahiti to observe the passage of Venus between the Earth and the Sun. During another leg of the journey, Cook discovered New Zealand, surveyed Australia and navigated the Great Barrier Reef. He recorded numerous achievements on Endeavour and NASA decided to keep such an important and beautiful name present in people’s minds.

Space Shuttle Endeavour recorded its first launch, the STS-49 mission, with a flawless success on May 7, 1992.