Endeavour soars on second-to-last space shuttle trip

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Endeavour blasted off on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit Monday morning as the mission commander's wounded wife, U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

Space shuttle Endeavour clears the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday.

With Giffords' husband, commander Mark Kelly, at the helm, Endeavour and its experienced crew of five Americans and an Italian are headed for the International Space Station. They will arrive at the orbiting outpost Wednesday, delivering a $2 billion magnetic instrument that will seek out antimatter and dark energy in the universe.

On Tuesday, the astronauts will survey their ship for any launch damage to Endeavour's thermal shield. Only a couple small bits of insulating foam came off the fuel tank during the crucial phase of liftoff, officials said.

NASA is winding down its 30-year-old shuttle program before embarking on something new. The event generated the kind of excitement seldom seen on Florida's Space Coast on such a grand scale — despite a delay of more than two weeks from the original launch date because of an electrical problem.

Monday's countdown was close to perfect, and the shuttle quickly disappeared into thin, low clouds.

"That was four seconds of cool," said Manny Kariotakis, who was visiting from Montreal. The 50-year-old day care owner got goosebumps watching the liftoff with thousands along Highway 1 in Titusville.

Launch manager Mike Moses apologized for the fleeting glimpse. "The view wasn't the best," he said.

Just before launching, Kelly thanked all those who put hands "on this incredible ship."

"It is in the DNA of our great country to reach for the stars and explore. We must not stop," he said.

Remarkably, Giffords made a return visit to see Kelly off. She is still undergoing rehabilitation in a Houston hospital to recover from a gunshot wound to the head in an assassination attempt little more than four months ago.

Giffords, a Democrat, has kept out of the public eye since the Jan. 8 shooting that wounded her and killed six in Tucson, Arizona. She was shielded from the cameras on launch day, as were the families of the other five astronauts. All watched the liftoff in private. She and Kelly said their goodbyes, face to face on Sunday.

Up to 45,000 guests jammed into NASA's launch site, and thousands packed area roads and towns to see Endeavour soar one last time. Only one shuttle flight remains.

VIPs included Apollo 11's Michael Collins and four other members of Congress.

Advance estimates had put Monday's crowd at 500,000, more than the number that saw Discovery's final hurrah in February. Across the Indian River in Titusville, though, the number of spectators appeared to be down compared with Endeavour's previous launch attempt on a Friday afternoon.

Titusville Assistant Police Chief John Lau guessed the crowd at between 350,000 and 400,000.

"I don't know if it was the early morning or what," Lau said.

Electrical trouble grounded the shuttle on April 29, disappointing the hordes of visitors, including President Barack Obama and his family. Repairs over the past two weeks took care of the problem.

"God Speed Endeavour We're ready for you!" space station resident Ronald Garan Jr. said in a Twitter update. At launch, the space station was 220 miles (350 kilometers) high, just southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Kelly almost didn't make the flight.

The 47-year-old Navy captain took a leave from training to be by his wife's side after she was wounded, and it seemed unlikely he would stay with the flight. But Giffords improved and was moved from the hospital in her hometown of Tucson to Houston where Kelly lives and does astronaut training. Her days were filled with rehab work, and he yearned to see the shuttle mission through. A month after the shooting, he announced he would fly.