Officials Review Readiness for Endeavour Shuttle Mission

NASA's senior officials and Space Shuttle Program managers are meeting today for the Flight Readiness Review, a standard process leading up to any shuttle mission. Known simply by its acronym FRR, the two-day session gives NASA a chance to evaluate whether space shuttle Endeavour is prepared for its duties during the STS-123 mission.

The group is to formally set a launch date for the flight at the end of the second day of meetings.

Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts is to launch March 11, 2008, at 2:28 a.m. from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle will carry the first segment of a Japanese laboratory complex called Kibo, plus a new robotics system to complement the station's robot arm.

The flight is commanded by Dominic Gorie with Gregory H. Johnson serving as Pilot. The crew also includes Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan, Robert L. Behnkin, Mike Foreman, Garret Reisman and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi.

Source: NASA