“We at NASA are deeply saddened by today’s news that former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and others were killed in a plane crash in Alaska that also injured former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and his son, Kevin. As a long-time supporter of NASA, Sen. Stevens made lasting contributions to our agency and our country. We at NASA mourn his loss and send our deepest condolences to his family, as well as the families and friends of all who perished in the accident. We also send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Sean, Kevin, and other survivors of the crash. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families.”

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour is set to begin a 13-day flight to the International Space Station with a Feb. 7 launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is planned for 4:39 a.m. EST, making this the final scheduled space shuttle night launch.

Endeavour’s launch date was announced Wednesday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle’s equipment, support systems and procedures are ready.

Endeavour’s flight will begin the final year of space shuttle operations. Five shuttle missions are planned in 2010, with the last flight currently targeted for launch in September.

Endeavour’s mission will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, the final module of the U.S. portion of the space station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the space station’s life support and environmental control systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, which houses a robotic control station and has seven windows to provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. After the node and cupola are added, the orbiting laboratory will be about 90 percent complete.

Commander George Zamka and his crew of five astronauts are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy at approximately 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 2, for final launch preparations. Joining Zamka on STS-130 are Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

STS-130 will be Endeavour’s 24th mission and the 33rd shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. For more information about STS-130, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

The mission, designated STS-129, included three spacewalks and the
installation of two platforms to the International Space Station’s
truss, or backbone. The platforms hold large spare parts to sustain
station operations after the shuttles are retired. The shuttle crew
delivered about 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that
provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain
a proper orientation in space.

STS-129 Commander Charlie Hobaugh was joined on Atlantis’ STS-129
mission by Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin,
Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Atlantis returned with
station resident Nicole Stott, who spent 91 days in space. This marks
the final time the shuttle is expected to rotate station crew
members.

A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Monday, Nov. 30, in
Houston. The public is invited to attend the 4 p.m. CST event at
Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 990. Highlights from the ceremony will
be broadcast on NASA Television’s Video File. For NASA TV downlink
information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

With Atlantis and its crew safely home, the stage is set for launch of
shuttle Endeavour on its STS-130 mission, targeted to begin in
February. Endeavour will deliver a pressurized module, known as
Tranquility, which will provide room for many of the space station’s
life support systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, a robotic
control station with six windows around its sides and another in the
center that provides a 360-degree view around the station.

For more about the STS-129 mission and the upcoming STS-130 flight,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

STS-129 crew members Melvin, Satcher and Stott are providing mission
updates on Twitter. For their Twitter feeds and other NASA social
media Web sites, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Also, at 4:30 a.m. Monday morning, the Mission Management Team will meet to give the “go” for tanking of space shuttle Atlantis. Tanking is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m.

Weather remains at 90 percent favorable for an on-time liftoff at 2:28 p.m. Monday afternoon.

Atlantis’ launch date was announced Thursday at the conclusion of a
flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA
and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the
mission and determined the shuttle’s equipment, support systems and
procedures are ready.

The Nov. 16 target date depends on the planned Nov. 14 launch of an
Atlas V rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The
Atlas has reserved the Eastern Range on Nov. 14 and 15. If the Atlas
launch is delayed to Nov. 15, the shuttle’s liftoff will move to no
earlier than 2:02 p.m. on Nov. 17.

The STS-129 mission will focus on storing spare hardware on the
exterior of the space station. The flight will include three
spacewalks and install two platforms on the station’s truss, or
backbone. The platforms will hold spare parts to sustain station
operations after the shuttle fleet is retired.

Commander Charlie Hobaugh and his crew of five astronauts are
scheduled to arrive at Kennedy at approximately 5 p.m. on Thursday,
Nov. 12, for final launch preparations. Joining Hobaugh on STS-129
will be Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin,
Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Nicole Stott, an
astronaut who currently resides on the station, will return home with
the Atlantis crew after living in space for more than two months. Her
return on the shuttle is slated to be the final time it is used to
rotate space station crew members.

STS-129 will be Atlantis’ 31st mission and the 31st shuttle flight
dedicated to station assembly and maintenance. For more information
about STS-129, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Mission Specialist Bobby Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon, now is
sending updates about his training to his Twitter account,
Astro_Bones. He can be followed at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Bones

For more information on the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

“This is a huge step forward for NASA’s exploration goals,” said Doug
Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Ares I-X provides
NASA with an enormous amount of data that will be used to improve the
design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight
vehicles — vehicles that could again take humans beyond low Earth
orbit.”

The 327-foot tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of
thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g’s and Mach 4.76, just
shy of hypersonic speed. It capped its easterly flight at a
suborbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the separation of its first
stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster.

Parachutes deployed for recovery of the booster and the solid rocket
motor will be recovered at sea for later inspection. The simulated
upper stage, Orion crew module, and launch abort system will not be
recovered.

“The most valuable learning is through experience and observation,”
said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “Tests such as this — from
paper to flight — are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the
vehicle, from design to development.”

Wednesday’s flight offered an early opportunity to test and prove
hardware, facilities, and ground operations - important data for
future space vehicles. During the flight, a range of performance data
was relayed to the ground and also stored in the onboard flight data
recorder. The 700 sensors mounted on the vehicle provide flight test
engineering data to correlate with computer models and analysis. The
rocket’s sensors gathered information in several areas, including
assembly and launch operations, separation of the vehicle’s first and
second stages, controllability and aerodynamics, the re-entry and
recovery of the first stage and new vehicle design techniques.

The Ares I-X efforts are led by the Ares I-X mission management office
of the Constellation Program, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston, and NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in
Washington. NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designed and
built the vehicle’s upper stage mass simulator. NASA’s Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Va., provided aerodynamic
characterization, flight test vehicle integration and the crew
module/launch abort system mass simulator. NASA’s Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with contractor support, provided
management for the development of Ares I-X avionics, roll control,
and first stage systems. The Kennedy Space Center provided operations
and associated ground activities and launch operations.

Contractors for Ares I-X include Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, of Salt
Lake City for the first stage solid rocket booster and Teledyne Brown
Engineering of Huntsville for the roll control system. Jacobs
Engineering of Tullahoma, Tenn., supported by Lockheed Martin of
Denver, provided the avionics systems. United Space Alliance of
Houston and ATK Launch Systems support the ground systems and launch
operations.

The Ares I-X launch date was announced after a flight test readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the test and determined the rocket, support systems and procedures are ready for launch.

“I am proud of the work this team has done to ready this test rocket for launch,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. “This is the first time in more than 30 years that NASA has built a vehicle in a new configuration so this has been a valuable learning experience.

“This test will yield important data to support the nation’s next steps in exploration. There is no substitute for hard data - flight testing clarifies the distinction between imagined outcomes and real flight experience.”

The 28-mile high, two-minute flight of the Ares I-X, an uncrewed development rocket, will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations, while gathering critical data for the Ares I rocket and future launch vehicles.

The crawler-transporter left Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m.

The vehicle is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on Oct. 27. This test flight of the Ares I-X rocket will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle.

The Ares I rocket is being designed to carry astronauts to space in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Ares I-X test flight also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the vehicle’s integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system. Data collected from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will begin to confirm the vehicle as a whole is safe and stable in flight before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.

“With the arrival of Ares I-X at the pad, this milestone demonstrates NASA’s world-class ability to conceptually design, build and process a new launch vehicle in just under four years,” said Bob Ess, mission manager for Ares I-X at Kennedy. “Nearly 2,000 NASA and contractor employees located throughout the United States worked together in an unprecedented fashion, resulting in the new vehicle ready for flight.”

During the week before launch, technicians at the pad will perform a variety of electrical and mechanical checks to ready the vehicle for flight, including hydraulic power unit hot fire, steering tests and internal power verifications using flight batteries.

United Space Alliance of Houston is NASA’s prime contractor for the ground processing of the Ares I-X rocket.

“Processing for the Ares I-X test flight in parallel with space shuttle operations has been a true challenge involving people and hardware from across the country, and we’re very proud of what the team has accomplished,” said Mark Nappi, vice president of Launch and Recovery Systems for United Space Alliance.

ATK Space Systems of Magna, Utah, is NASA’s prime contractor for the first stage of the rocket.

“The NASA and contractor teamwork displayed over the last four years has been the catalyst that brought us to this important milestone today,” said Bob Herman, ATK’s vice president of Exploration Systems for Kennedy Space Center Operations. “As the Ares I first stage provider, we are looking forward to receiving invaluable data during the flight test.”

At the Flight Test Readiness Review on Oct. 23, mission managers will finalize the launch date and provide the team with a final “go” or “no go” for launch.

Ares I-X is an un-crewed, sub-orbital development test in a modified Ares I configuration. Ares I-X is the first developmental flight test of the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I and V rockets, Orion and the Altair lunar lander.

To follow Ares I-X on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X.

For information about Ares I-X, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX.

Managers for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate met Monday and decided to adjust Atlantis’ target launch date to optimize the agency’s ability to launch both Ares I-X and Atlantis before the end of the year. The same launch team at Kennedy is supporting both the shuttle and the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, which is targeted to lift off on Oct. 27. Ares I-X is scheduled to roll out to its launch pad at 12:01 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Atlantis’ new target launch date will give Ares I-X launch opportunities Oct. 27, 28 and 29. NASA has yet to schedule Atlantis’ new target liftoff date on the Eastern Range.

The change to Atlantis’ targeted launch will affect the launch countdown dress rehearsal for the shuttle’s six astronauts. The astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test and related training. The simulated countdown has been rescheduled to Nov. 3. The astronauts will practice emergency escape and other related training while they are at Kennedy this week and return there Nov. 2 to conclude their rehearsal work.

Atlantis had been targeted for a Nov. 12 liftoff.

The agency’s Flight Readiness Review meeting for STS-129 is set for Oct. 29. NASA will schedule an official launch date for Atlantis following that meeting.

For more information about the STS-129 mission and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.

The first motion of the Ares I-X out of Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building is targeted for 12:01 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The 4.2-mile journey is expected to last about seven hours.

Live NASA Television coverage with commentary will start at 11:45 p.m., Oct. 19, and 7 a.m., Oct. 20. Video highlights of the move will air on NASA Television’s Video File.

The rollout of Ares I-X originally was set for Monday, Oct. 19. During testing on Oct. 14, engineers detected a nitrogen gas leak in an accumulator located in the aft skirt of the rocket. The accumulator, which absorbs hydraulic pressure spikes as the system operates, was replaced and successfully retested. Management is assessing what effect, if any, this delayed rollout will have on the targeted Oct. 27 launch date.