Space Shuttle Endeavour Poster

Space Shuttle Endeavour and its seven-member STS-127 crew head towards Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station. Liftoff was on time at 6:03 p.m. (EDT) on July 15, 2009 from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. Onboard are astronauts Mark Polansky, commander; Doug Hurley, pilot; Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency's Julie Payette, all mission specialists. Kopra will join Expedition 20 in progress to serve as a flight engineer aboard the ISS. Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the space station.