Endeavour lifts off for extreme design mission

Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven blasted into clear tropical skies under a spectacular moon Friday night, heading for the International Space Station.

The mission: extreme interior redecoration, with a little outdoor lighting work.

Endeavour rumbled off its launch pad on time, just before 8 p.m. EST. As the engines and rocket boosters illumined Cape Canaveral, night briefly turned into day.

The shuttle crew, commanded by Navy Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson, will spend Thanksgiving circling Earth. One crew member, scientist Sandra Magnus, will also spend Christmas and New Year’s at the space station.

The crew also includes the pilot, Air Force Col. Eric A. Boe; three mission specialists, Navy Capt. Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Army Lt. Col. Robert S. Kimbrough, and Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen; and scientist Donald R. Pettit.

Preparations for the launch were smooth, save for a launch tower door that would not stay closed. Once the decision was made to launch anyway, Kennedy Space Center launch director Mike Leinbach told the crew: “The vehicle’s in good shape, the weather’s beautiful. On behalf of the entire shuttle launch team, good luck, Godspeed, and have a happy Thanksgiving on orbit.”

Ferguson replied: “It’s our turn to take home improvement to a new level after 10 years of International Space Station construction. Endeavour’s ready to go.”

The 15-day mission has been dubbed “Extreme Home Improvements.” Once they reach the station Sunday, the astronauts will install more bedrooms, a second bathroom, an exercise suite and a new kitchenette -- all in zero gravity. They’ll also do some spacewalking to fix a joint that turns the station’s vast solar panels to face the sun.

For nearly a decade, the focus has been on hauling people, supplies and prefabricated space housing to build the International Space Station like an orbital Erector set.

“In this case, when the crew leaves, the station won’t look any different on the outside but it will be dramatically different on the inside,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.

The aim of the makeover is to make room for more crew members. Next year, the station is scheduled to go from three full-time crew members to six. More crew members means more science, making better use of the $100-billion laboratory in the sky.

The station is 76% complete and is as spacious inside as a three-bedroom house. By the time the station is finished in 2010 it will have the interior space of a five-bedroom house and be the size of a football field, including both end zones.

“It’s such a large vehicle [now] that just the maintenance of such a vehicle with only three crew gets to be very difficult,” Suffredini said.

They are bringing two new “sleep stations” -- deluxe bedrooms that resemble a padded compartment the size of a closet. Inside, a sleeping bag is attached to the wall so astronauts can sleep in zero gravity.

Another improvement will be the multimillion-dollar workout station, where astronauts will use resistance technology. In space, normal weights are, well, weightless.

Astronauts also will install a small refrigerator-freezer -- and that means cold beverages. Until now, drinks were only available in two temperatures: hot and warm.

“Six months of lukewarm orange juice can kinda bum you out,” said Magnus, who will be the newest American crew member on the station. She’s replacing flight engineer Greg Chamitoff, who will return home on Endeavour.

But the masterpiece of the interior improvements is the $19-million toilet system complete with a privacy enclosure. The station’s lone toilet hasn’t always worked.

The new toilet will be hooked up to the $250-million “Regenerative ECLSS system” -- a complex closet-sized dehumidifier-cum-water-treatment-plant. It’s capable of recycling sweat and urine into drinking water and oxygen.

“I like to refer to this whole process as a coffee machine,” said Pettit, who has lived on the space station before. “It’s going to take yesterday’s coffee and make it into today’s coffee.”

The crew won’t get to test that morning java theory for at least four months while NASA makes sure it works as advertised. But its creator expects no problems.

“We did blind taste tests of the water,” said NASA’s Bob Bagdigian, the system’s lead engineer. “Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water.”