The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station on the penultimate flight for the US shuttle program. “We want to thank all the tens of thousands of employees who have put their hands on this incredible ship,” shuttle commander Mark Kelly said moments before liftoff at 8:56 (1256 GMT). The six-member crew of astronauts including five Americans and one Italian, Roberto Vittori, is delivering a potent physics experiment to probe the origins of the universe during the 16-day mission, which will include four spacewalks. As many as 500,000 onlookers crowded into coastal viewing spots in Brevard County, the area around Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, with the US shuttle program set to end later this year after the final flight by Atlantis. The STS-134 mission, initially set to begin April 29, was postponed when technicians discovered a power failure in a heating line that served to prevent fuel from freezing in orbit. NASA completed exhaustive repairs last week. The shuttle is set to dock at the ISS Wednesday at 6:15 am (1015 GMT), and will stay there until May 30, returning to the United States on June 1, the US space agency said. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a two-billion-dollar, 15,000 pound (7,000 kilogram) particle detector, will be left behind to scour the universe for hints of dark matter and antimatter over the next decade.
