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Endeavour - Mission in Space complete
7.31.09 - All astronauts of the US spaceship "Endeavour" landed sound and safe at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a 16 days long mission in space. The mission which was called STS-127 "A PORCH IN SPACE" is considered a success. However it had to overcome many challenges.
All of the STS-127 crew members are doing well after the landing. "The folks that have worked this mission really deserve a lot of praise for what they got accomplished during the time that we were docked to the International Space Station," STS-127 Commander Mark Polansky said during an afternoon news conference Friday. "In addition to that, it's a tremendous pleasure and honor to bring back a great astronaut from Japan, Koichi Wakata."
Mark Polansky (puh-LAN-skee)
Commander
- Veteran of two spaceflights, STS-98 & 116
- Age: 53, Hometown: Edison, N.J.
- Married with two children
- Writes on Twitter feed @Astro_127
Doug Hurley (HUR-lee)
Pilot (Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps)
- First spaceflight
- Age: 42, Hometown: Apalachin, N.Y.
- Logged 3,200+ hours in 22 different aircraft
- Enjoys hunting, cycling and NASCAR races
Tom Marshburn
Mission Specialist-3
- First spaceflight
- Age: 48, Hometown: Statesville, N.C.
- Married with one daughter
- Was emergency doctor, NASA flight surgeon
Christopher Cassidy
Mission Specialist-1 (Commander, U.S. Navy)
- First spaceflight
- Age: 39, Hometown: York, Maine
- Married with three children
- U.S. Navy SEAL for 10 years
Julie Payette (pie-YET)
Mission Specialist-2 (Canadian Space Agency)
- Veteran of one spaceflight, STS-96 in 1999
- Age: 45, Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
- Married with two children
- Holds a commercial pilot's license, plays piano
Tim Kopra (CO-prah)
Mission Specialist-5/Expedition 20 Flight Engineer
- First spaceflight (Colonel, U.S. Army)
- Age: 45, Hometown: Austin, Texas
- Married with two children
- Returns to Earth on STS-128
Dave Wolf
Mission Specialist-4
- Veteran of three flights and four spacewalks
- Spent 128 days on Russian space station Mir
- Age: 52, Hometown: Indianapolis
- M.D. from Indiana University, 1982
Koichi Wakata (ko-EE-chee) (wah-KAH-tah)
Expedition 18, 19 &20/Mission Specialist-5
- Flew on STS-72, STS-92 & STS-119 to station
- Age: 45, Born: Saitama, Japan
- Ph.D. aerospace engineering, Kyushu-U, 2004
- Married with son. Returns to Earth on STS-127
Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member crew launched at 6:03 p.m. EDT Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The main task of the mission was to deliver the final components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station. The mission included five spacewalks and the installation of two platforms outside of the Japanese module. One platform is permanent and will serve as a type of porch for experiments that require direct exposure to space. The other is an experiment storage pallet that was detached and returned with the shuttle. During the mission, Kibo's robotic arm exchanged three experiments from the palette to the platform. Future experiments also can be transferred to the platform from the inside using the laboratory's airlock. Endeavour also delivered a new crew member and brought back Koichi Wakata after more than three months aboard the station.
Wakata returned from the station as a member of the STS-127 crew after serving as the outpost's flight engineer since March. Replacing him aboard the station is Flight Engineer Tim Kopra. When asked how he is handling the return to Earth, Wakata replied, "When the hatch opened, I smelled the grass from the ground and was glad to be back home. Still feeling a little shaky when I walk, but I'm feeling very good."
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