Countdown Begins & Flight Crew Arrives Today

SLN: Up to the Minute, I'm Charles Atkeison... The seven member crew of this weeks space shuttle flight will arrive later today here at the Kennedy Space Center, just hours prior to the start of the launch countdown.

At about 4pm today, crew members led by Commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Eric Boe, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Stephen Bowen, Donald Pettit, Robert "Shane" Kimbrough and space station flight engineer Sandra Magnus will arrive in T-38A jets at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility runway.

You can watch the crew arrival here via the NASA-TV link at the right.

Six-hours later, at 10PM ET, focus will turn to the Launch Control Center as the countdown for mission STS-126 begins.

Also on tap for today is a 10AM launch status briefing, which you can watch also via NASA-TV.

An ontime launch will see space shuttle Endeavour leave her seaside launch pad this Friday evening at 7:55 pm, for a two week mission to the international space station.

SLN will start our live launch coverage at 2:30 pm ET with live NASA-TV, and post updates during the aftternoon into the evening.

As of this morning, Cape Weather is forcasting a 30% chance of rain in the late afternoon and a high near 83 degrees.

At T-3 days, 12 hours until the launch of Endeavour, this is spacelaunchnews.com.