Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Endeavour

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Space Shuttle Endeavour in July 2007

1. Space Shuttle Orbiter OV-105, which made its first flight on May 7, 1992 (STS-49). The selection of the Shuttle nameEndeavour came from a national competition involving elementary and secondary school students. ShuttleEndeavour's milestones include the first flight of a replacement Shuttle (STS-49), the rescue and redeployment of the IntelsatVI-F3 communications satellite (STS-49), and the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-61).



2. The call sign of the Apollo 15 Command Module.

Both spacecraft were named after the first ship captained by explorer James Cook. Cook sailed Endeavour on her maiden voyage in August 1768 to the South Pacific to observe and document the rare passage of the planet Venus between Earth and the Sun. He later took her on a voyage that resulted in the discovery of New Zealand, a survey of the eastern coast of Australia, and the navigation of the Great Barrier Reef. A second ship captained by Cook, Discovery, also inspired the name of a Shuttle. 

Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Space Shuttle orbiter, also designated OV-104. Atlantis was named in honor of a two-masted ketch that supported oceanographic research for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts between 1930 and 1966. It first flew on Oct. 3, 1985, as mission STS-51J. Other Atlantismilestones have included the deployment of Magellan (STS-30) andGalileo (STS-34), and the first docking of a Space Shuttle to the Mirspace station (STS-71). 

Current plans call for retirement of Atlantis in 2008, leaving the two remaining active Shuttles, Discovery and Endeavour in service until they too are retired in 2010.