Storms Delay Endeavour Launch

Husband says she pumped her fist in excitement

(NEWSER) - Doctors have officially cleared Gabrielle Giffords to attend the space shuttle Endeavor’s final launch on Friday, Mark Kelly revealed in an interview with Katie Couric set to air on CBS tonight. Asked what Giffords’ reaction was, Kelly replied, “I think she said, ‘Awesome,’ and she pumped her fist one more time!” On the Early Show, Couric spilled more from her conversation with Kelly, saying, "She goes through three-to-five hours of rehab every single day ... and she goes through speech rehabilitation, music; she likes to listen to U2. 'It's a Beautiful Day' is one of her favorite songs." Click here for extensive details on Giffords' recovery . More»

Museums vie for soon-to-be-retired spacecraft

(NEWSER) - NASA is preparing to give away its space shuttle fleet to institutions willing to cough up $28.8 million per spacecraft for cleaning and transportation. Atlantis will be retired after returning from its final mission today and some two dozen museums and other institutions around the country are vying to get their hands on it or its sister ships Endeavor and Discovery when they follow it into retirement later this year, CNN reports. More»

Craft scheduled to reach International Space Station Sunday

(AP) - Space shuttle Atlantis is on its way to orbit for the last time. Atlantis and an experienced crew of six blasted off this afternoon from the Kennedy Space Center. More than 40,000 guests gathered at the Florida launch site, all of them eager to catch one of the few remaining shuttle flights. NASA said it was the biggest launch-day crowd in years. More»

Endeavour crew successfully completes maintenance and upgrades of space station

(NEWSER) - Astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour today completed the final tasks of their mission to upgrade and maintain the International Space Station’s Kibo lab, Space.com reports. Crewmen Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn spent five hours in space rewiring the station’s altitude control system and adding some TV cameras to the experiment porch addition to Kibo. More»

(NEWSER) - Two Endeavour astronauts enjoyed a successful spacewalk on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing yesterday, reports Space.com. The astronauts, who attached three large spare parts to the International Space Station, were outside at 4:17pm—the exact time Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface. More»