Endeavor Launch - Sts 123 On March 11, Rare Night Launch

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STS 123 (Endeavour) is currently scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39A, to the International Space Station (ISS) at 02:28:12.000 Eastern Daylight Time (06:28:12.000 UTC) on 2008 March 11

Its a Night launch and the path will be up the Eastern Seaboard.

It should be visible (conditions permitting) over much of the flight path

See: http://celestrak.com/events/sts-123-launch.asp for info on viewing the launch from your location

Arthur

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Endeavor update:

Performing electronic bypass surgery, the Endeavour astronauts late Friday successfully routed power to a Canadian maintenance robot being assembled at the international space station. Using the station's mechanical arm to feed electricity directly to a power-and-data plug on one end of the unfinished robot's torso, the crew was able to bypass suspect circuitry in the pallet used to carry the robot's components into orbit. The power-up operation was confirmed by telemetry at 10:10 p.m. A few minutes later, engineers confirmed critical heaters were working as required.

The station arm does not have to stay attached around the clock. Periodic power ups will suffice to keep Dextre's joints warm until the robot is fully assembled and mounted directly to a power and data grapple fixture on the Destiny lab module.

Japanese astronaut Takao Doi and space station commander Peggy Whitson officially opened Japan's new logistics module this evening, dedicating the latest addition to the international lab complex and setting the stage for launch of Japan's huge Kibo experiment module in late May.

The logistics module is the first of two Japanese additions to the space station that will complement U.S. and European laboratory modules. In late May, the shuttle Discovery will ferry the Greyhound bus-size Kibo lab module to the station, attaching it to the Harmony module's left port.

The logistics module, loaded with equipment racks that later will be moved into the larger lab module, was temporarily mounted on Harmony's upper port early Thursday. After the lab module arrives in late May, the logistics segment will be moved to an outboard port on the larger Japanese module.

Arthur