Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager, said, "We're really looking forward to this launch carrying up node 3 and the cupola.

"From the shuttle program perspective, looking at our launch readiness, we're in really good shape. We had a fantastic review this morning," continued Moses, "Unanimous poll, everyone's pressing forward to go for launch."

Bernardo Patti, ESA's International Space Station program manager, said how happy and proud he is to see the last two European elements ready for the space station. He also commented on the great support and cooperation between the space agencies and how rewarding the process has been.

Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, reported his team is not tracking any technical issues and everything is on track for the rotating service structure rollback at 8 a.m. Saturday and loading of the external fuel tank with propellants around 7:15 p.m.

"The team is energized and excited about the countdown... looking forward to getting Endeavour off the ground Sunday morning," said Leinbach.

Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer, said the forecast has improved and there's only a 20 percent chance weather would be an issue at launch time. Although it may be a little chilly and breezy, no constraints should be violated. The forecast at the transoceanic abort landing sites in Spain and France also looks favorable.

Saturday at 7 p.m., NASA TV will air the fueling of Endeavour's external tank at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. At 11:30 p.m., live launch coverage will kick off on NASA TV.

You also can follow Endeavour's exciting countdown to launch with NASA's Launch Blog from inside Kennedy's Firing Room 3 beginning at 11:30 p.m. and continuing through main engine cutoff -- when Endeavour reaches orbit on its two-day race to the station.

› Meet the STS-130 Crew

Endeavour's STS-130 Mission
Commander George Zamka will lead the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. Terry Virts will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

Shuttle Endeavour and its crew will deliver to the space station a third connecting module, the Italian-built Tranquility node and the seven-windowed cupola, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for February 7, 2010, at 4:39 a.m. EST

Additional Resources
› STS-130 Press Kit (8.7 Mb PDF)
› STS-130 Mission Summary (448 Kb PDF)
› Reusable Solid Rocket Motor and Solid Rocket Boosters
› Fact Sheet: Remaining Shuttle Missions (1.3 Mb PDF)

Orbiter Status
› About the Orbiters

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"This is a really exciting week for the space station and for the scientists that want to use these laboratories," said Julie Robinson, program scientist for the station at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We've already had some important findings on station during its construction. With this strong support for continued space station lifetime to 2020 or beyond, we will have amazing discoveries from the science and technology research that can be accomplished."

NASA senior managers from the space station program and counterparts at Russia's Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology met to discuss the implications of continuing station operations and utilization and recently issued a joint statement about the station's future.

They noted, "ISS continuation could bring great benefit to all partners and humankind by demonstrating significant and sustained return on the partnership's investment in the ISS program, primarily through the enhanced research and usage opportunities."

The entire statement is available at:

The continued use of the station will open the window for more studies that can only be done in the unique environment of space. Specifically, scientists can discover how cells reproduce and differentiate in microgravity with applications to areas such as tissue generation and wound repair. Also, there are opportunities for more human physiology research to learn about systems such as heart, muscle and bone, which can benefit space explorers and ill or injured patients.

Studies of fluid physics that benefit from lack of buoyancy in microgravity will provide new understanding of soft matter, supercritical fluids and two phase flow. Technology tests will advance areas such as robotics, life support and spacecraft servicing.

Station construction began in Dec. 1998 and will be completed during 2010. Once complete, the station will transition to a new "full usage" phase, where continuous scientific research will be conducted aboard the multinational orbiting laboratory.

During the past decade, scientific research accomplishments made aboard the station included advances in the fight against food poisoning and new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells. Studies of salmonella bacteria identified the controlling gene responsible for its increased virulence in microgravity, and a commercial company has used changes in virulence of microbes to screen for candidate vaccines.

Results of an early station experiment led to improvements in a method for delivering drugs to targets in the human body. The research led the way for better methods of micro-encapsulation, a process of forming miniature, liquid-filled balloons the size of blood cells that can deliver treatment directly to cancer cells.

NASA has a new Web feature that provides examples of space station research dividends including cancer treatment, food poisoning vaccine development, air purification, remote ultrasound tests and many more. For more information about station science payoffs, visit: