Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch: When, Where To Watch On May 16 (LIVE VIDEO) (UPDATE)

UPDATE: Missed the launch? You can watch a recap here.

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PREVIOUSLY: After a delay caused by mechanical difficulties, space shuttle Endeavour is set to blast off for its final mission (STS-134) on Monday, May 16.

The craft will launch at 8:56 a.m. ET from Launch Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center.

This will be the 25th and final liftoff for Endeavour, and the second-to-last shuttle launch ever.

In June, Space Shuttle Atlantis is set to take off for STS-135, the final shuttle mission.

Endeavour's previous lunch attempt on April 29 drew a massive crowd of close to 700,000. This time, 500,000 are expected to attend, with wounded Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords among them. Giffords's husband, Mark Kelly, is the STS-134 mission commander.

You can watch the shuttle launch online NASA TV, or see the live stream below.

For more launch details, visit NASA's mission homepage.

WATCH LIVE:

Stream videos at Ustream

Comments

[kkatz123]

03:39 PM on 07/09/2011

www.kittycatchats.com

It would be a lot less expensive if DC put what they are smoking into the gas pumps and space program, save on fuel and the 50 million it will be costing the USA to hitch a ride from Russia to the space station. It is clear our various leaders are high, think they are mighty and we KNOW out of touch with the rest of the galaxy.

www.kittycatchats.com

[Eleanor De Bethencourt]

08:14 PM on 05/17/2011

god's speed big e.

[farleft1917]

01:38 PM on 05/16/2011

Whatever happens you can be sure the money saved by splashing down late 60's style will never go to the poor.

[pheonixcat]

12:43 PM on 05/16/2011

waste of money we don t belong up there.

[jsarets]

01:03 PM on 05/16/2011

For as long as there has been records of human civilizations, we have shown signs of being keenly interested if not outright obsessed with "the heavens", unlocking their secrets and even basing entire spiritual frameworks around the idea that the righteous will ascend to the heavens. So I'd say we probably belong up there.

[Xylem44]

01:03 PM on 05/16/2011

wow... money is for more than just paying bills. Innovation and inspiration are as important as money.

[14tavoliberal]

11:44 AM on 05/16/2011

So it's already in space?

[jsarets]

12:28 PM on 05/16/2011

Yes, already in space. Payload bay doors are open, Ku-band antenna is deployed, robotic arm is powered up, and the crew is now powering up the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer payload.

Endeavour has executed two orbital maneuvers so far. The OMS-2 burn circularized the initial elliptical orbit (which is necessary to get the external tank to come down over an uninhabited part of the South Pacific), and the NC-1 burn is the first a several burns to adjust Endeavour's phasing orbit so that she catches up to the International Space Station on Flight Day 3.

[jsarets]

11:28 AM on 05/16/2011

Picture taken from an airliner of Space Shuttle Endeavour climbing above the cloud deck:

http://twitpic.com/4yg4ur

[shutterbabe]

11:53 AM on 05/16/2011

Your comments have been wonderful. Thank you.

[Hardyman1966]

12:00 PM on 05/16/2011

I am insanely jealous.  What perfect timing.

[Dopster]

11:22 AM on 05/16/2011

Godspeed, Endeavour!

[gman123]

11:19 AM on 05/16/2011

Bon voyage!!!

[Peter Paul Hoffman]

11:15 AM on 05/16/2011

That's it? 1 more shuttle mission and that will be the end to American's in space?? If I did not know any better I would say something is going on in up there, or will be going on that the powers that be just end the only viable man space program on the planet..

[Aaron Oesterle]

11:29 AM on 05/16/2011

No, this is not the end to American's in space. Merely the end of a program that it was time to end, that being shuttle.

For the next generation of vehicles, I suggest you check out CST-100, Dragon, and Dreamchaser

[llindqu295]

11:08 AM on 05/16/2011

The MESSAGE is much more important than the SPELLING of it!

[presenseOfcolor]

11:04 AM on 05/16/2011

One question has long nagged at me ever since the announcement to stop came under Bush. WHY?
So much technology that we use today is the direct result of manned space flight. Oxygen breathing apparatus for firefighters, cell phones, computers, Tang, so very much, yet we are just walking away?
What's out there? I was hoping that the WISE satellite images of the Ort Cloud released in April would help me understand, nice images but no answers. Then I realized that if there is a "threat" to earth, we'd be the last to ever know. The results list an astounding number of new near earth objects we didn't previously know of.
This has nothing to do with politics I think. No, it has a much deeper reasoning behind it, and it's frustrating because I don't feel that reasoning has been shared, with us, you know the people whom are effected by the decision.
SIGH.

[jsarets]

11:22 AM on 05/16/2011

Because we've been flying the Shuttles for 30 years, persevering through their considerable design flaws, and they don't go beyond low Earth orbit. The unholy combination of NASA and Congress has proven themselves incapable of developing a follow-on at least 3 times while Shuttle was flying, and then they failed again to develop a follow-on during the six-year process of running out the Shuttle manifest. So maybe they'll finally have the sufficient incentive to get their act together now that they have nothing to fly.

[presenseOfcolor]

11:35 AM on 05/16/2011

Thanks for your reply, let's hope that financing becomes available because we would not stop going outward and upward.

[Aaron Oesterle]

11:28 AM on 05/16/2011

The end of shuttle is not the end of manned spaceflight. Shuttle is a vehicle that desperately needs to be replaced - its old, expensive, and we've had to actually buy parts for it on Ebay.

It is being continued with the CST-100, Dragon, Dream chaser, and other vehicles

[presenseOfcolor]

11:40 AM on 05/16/2011

Thanks for your reply.
Boeing also has it's unmanned autonomous versions, and these have been going through a lot of extended testing, some is in process as I type.
Dream chaser looks very promising.
And in a lighthearted look at things, if EBay is cheaper than Siemans, buy EBay, but pack the duct tape.

[newtom]

10:37 AM on 05/16/2011

Dear Ms. Catharine Smith, Please hire a new proof reader.

"Endeavour's previous lunch attempt..."

[GraphicMatt]

10:42 AM on 05/16/2011

That's correct.....they were going to have a lovely space picnic but it got interupted by space ants.....failed lunch attempt. : P

[Claudia Bow]

10:49 AM on 05/16/2011

nice catch.

[Guest211]

10:36 AM on 05/16/2011

If you like "all things science" here's something else interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNr2qBtETmk

[celeritas]

10:33 AM on 05/16/2011

"Reaching for the stars," I believe is our form of searching for the truth.  And whether it's inner or outer space exploration, isn't that what we really want?  Isn't that our collective divine path? 

[donny3666]

10:25 AM on 05/16/2011

WHEN THE LAST SPACE SHUTTLE TAKES OFF THE WHOLE COUNTRY SHOULD SING I HARMONT " BYE BYE MISS AMERICAN PIE"