The nine-day flight quickly caught the world's attention. In contrast, its modern day namesake is 78 tons, 122 feet in length and 78 feet wide.Įndeavour launched on its inaugural mission, STS-49, on May 7, 1992, a year to the day after being delivered to the Kennedy Space Center. His Endeavour was small at about 368 tons, 100 feet in length and 20 feet wide. Bush in May 1989.Įndeavour's name was inspired by the 18th century sailing ship assigned to chart the South Pacific under British explorer Capt. The winner was announced by President George H.W. The NASA Orbiter-Naming Project received 6,154 entries, representing more than 70,000 students. NASA opened the competition with the provision the proposals were drawn from nautical tradition. 'There was a little contest that decided how we're going to name it,' recalled Kelly.Įndeavour was christened through a contest initiated by Congress in response to the concern by students over the loss of Challenger.

NASA's tribute art for space shuttle Endeavour depicting OV-105 and its 25 mission patches. Largely assembled from spare parts pre-fabricated during the development of Discovery and Atlantis, NASA's fifth orbiter, or OV-105, was completed in 1991. 'It was decided that to build a new one would actually be more cost-effective to do, build a brand new orbiter, and that became Endeavour.' 'At the time the thought was, well, maybe we could modify Enterprise, which was the approach and landing test orbiter,' said Kelly. Initially NASA considered retrofitting its prototype orbiter to take Challenger's place. 'After the Challenger accident, Congress appropriated money to build. 'Endeavour was the replacement for Challenger,' Kelly recounted. 'It hasn't been around as long as Discovery and Atlantis, but it has done some pretty major things,' Kelly said about Endeavour during an earlier NASA interview.Įndeavour inherited its legacy from NASA's second-to-fly orbiter, which tragically was lost 73 seconds into its 10th launch in January 1986.

EDT (1947 GMT) on Friday, April 29 for a two-week mission. Kelly and his five STS-134 crew members are scheduled to launch onboard Endeavour at 3:47 p.m. After 25 flights, we will hopefully land here and then Endeavour is done with its service to the country,' added Kelly. 'We are going to take Endeavour out for a couple more, probably about five or six million more miles.

Facts about space shuttle endeavour