Endeavour Set for July 11 Launch, Again

NASA has apparently solved the hydrogen leak that halted two launch attempts of STS-127 last month from the Kennedy Space Center now enabling a July 11th launch of the space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station and expanding the station population to 13 for the first time [video].

If the third launch attempt is successful at 7:39 PM EDT, Saturday, July 11th, the highly complex 16-day space shuttle mission will include five spacewalks, the use of three robotic arms -- two working together and one that will "walk" across the outside of the space station to expand the Japanese laboratory now apart of the ISS.

The race is on to complete the ISS prior to termination of the space shuttle launch program in September 2010. American private industry will then proceed to re-supply the space station with two commercial carriers - SpaceX's Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Russian Soyuz will thereafter exclusively ferry NASA astronauts until 2012.