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SPACE SHUTTLE TO DELIVER EXPEDITION 4 CREW TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

NEW ORLEANS, LA., December 5th, 2001 -- Space Shuttle Endeavour is ready for launch from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. Liftoff time is marked at 4:19 p.m. (Central Time) Wednesday, December 5.

The sixth and final shuttle mission of the year, STS-108 will exchange crews on the space station. Endeavour will drop off the Expedition 4 crew – Russian Commander Yuri Onufrienko and astronauts Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch – and return home with the Expedition 3 crew – Commander Frank Culbertson and cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir Dezhurov – who have been living on the space station the past four months.

Powering the shuttle into space will be the Lockheed Martin-built Super Lightweight Tank that carries the liquid propellants used in the orbiter’s three main engines and is assembled at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

While at the space station, Endeavour’s crew will also transfer scientific experiments, equipment and supplies over to the station.

Opportunities to view the Space Shuttle and International Space Station in orbit can be located at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/index.html

NASA Television will carry the launch “live” on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 Mhz, and audio of 6.8 Mhz. The launch will also be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis at 8:30 p.m. on WLAE-TV, Channel 32 in New Orleans.

Marion LaNasa, (504) 257-1307 or pager (800) 341-2162.