Meanwhile, the P5 integrated truss segment and SPACEHAB module are already inside the environmentally controlled payload changeout room at the launch pad. The payloads are scheduled to be installed in Discovery's payload bay on Saturday, Nov. 11.

The STS-116 mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The launch window opens Dec. 7.

earlier related report
Launching The Countdown
Officially, the countdown clock for the STS-118 space shuttle mission is scheduled to begin in June 2007, about three days before launch. For educators, however, the countdown begins much earlier -- on Nov. 14, 2006.

In addition to its important role in continuing the assembly of the International Space Station, STS-118 will have a particular significance to the education community. Included in the mission's crew will be Barbara Morgan, making the first flight of a NASA educator astronaut.

Educator astronauts are former classroom teachers who are now full-time professional astronauts. They have the same training and perform the same duties as other mission specialist astronauts. In addition, they have the task of using their out-of-this-world experiences to help teachers excite students about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

NASA is planning a variety of educational activities and resources that will tie in with Morgan's flight on STS-118, before, during and after the mission. That's why the countdown for teachers starts on Nov. 14, with an event that will mark the formal beginning of NASA's education support for the mission.

The agency is working with the U.S. Department of Education on a special program to be held that day. NASA will launch its STS-118 efforts during International Education Week. The event will be webcast and broadcast on NASA TV, allowing teachers and students around the world to watch.

For students, the highlight of the event will be a downlink talk with commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who are living and working aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 14 crew.

Three Washington, D.C., area high schools have been invited to attend, and students will be able to ask questions of the crew on board the station. Because the study of foreign languages is one of the focuses of this year's International Education Week, the students will be asking questions in five different languages -- English, Russian, Spanish, French and German -- which are spoken by the station's current crew.

In addition, Ray Simon, the U.S. deputy secretary of education, will speak about International Education Week. Barbara Morgan and NASA officials will talk about the importance of education, provide an STS-118 preview and discuss the agency's Engineering Design Challenge.

NASA is committed to building strategic partnerships and linkages between science, technology, engineering and mathematics formal and informal educators. Through hands-on, interactive educational activities, NASA is engaging students, educators, families, the general public and all agency stakeholders to increase Americans' science and technology literacy. NASA in-flight education downlinks are coordinated by the Teaching From Space Project.

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Shutte at NASA
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Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
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