 From the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this is Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch Control. The countdown for the launch of Endeavour on Space Shuttle Mission STS-68 is continuing on schedule this morning. Again, the final inspection team is continuing to conduct their final portions of the work at the pad, and they will be departing the pad shortly to make their final report to the launch director. No issues have come up in the wake of their assessments, and everything continues to look good. As the crew completes their breakfast, they will soon be donning their flight suits and entry suits, and the commander and pilot will be given a final briefing on today's weather outlook. Starting with our commander, Mike Baker. All are being assisted with their suits by Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center Technicians. These personnel are experts in the understanding of the details on how these suits work. Well, today is Terry Wilkut. He will be making his first trip into space on Shuttle Endeavour. Mission specialist Steve Smith is making his first trip into space today also. He appears ready to fly, ready to go up. The bright orange colored suits are basically an altitude protection system, and of course they are checked out prior to launch. Payload commander Tom Jones making his second trip into space. His first trip was just this past April. Mission specialist Jeff Weissoff making his second trip into space today. And mission specialist Dan Birch making his second trip into space today. Making preparations on his suit to make sure that it pressurizes as it should. Checking all the straps and loops. Following launch and while on orbit, the crew members change out of these suits into more conventional and comfortable clothing. However, they are required to return to these suits prior to landing. This is Shuttle Launch Control. We are now at T minus three hours and counting. Everything continues to look good for our launch this morning at 7.16 a.m. from pad 39A with the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS 68. This is Shuttle Launch Control at T minus two hours and 50 minutes and counting and we have our six member crew on the third floor of the operations and checkout building. They have been suited and they are ready to take that 20 minute trip out to the pad. Getting on the elevator. They will be going down to the first floor at which time they will be entering the crew astro van. And our crew are walking out of the operations checkout building on their way to pad 39A. This is Shuttle Launch Control at T minus two hours 34 minutes and counting. And the astro van with the astronaut crew members inside has arrived at the base of pad 39A and they are at this time disembarking from the astronaut van. And once they are all gathered in the elevator they will make the trip up to the 195 foot level of the fixed service structure and begin their ingress into the orbiter. Pad 39A is the southernmost pad of NASA's two Shuttle Launch Facilities and it is nearly identical to pad 39B which is located just about a mile to the north. It looks like our crew members have deviated a little bit from their desire to go straight up to the orbiter and they are going to stand beneath the mobile launcher platform and have a quick picture taken of them. And we are at T minus nine minutes and holding. And all of our sites are observed go and forecast go as far as weather is concerned. We are just a few seconds away from resuming the countdown for the launch of Shuttle Endeavour this morning. And we are at T minus nine minutes and counting. And the ground launch sequencer has been initiated. NASA test director Bill Daldell was about to call for the transmittal of stored prelaunch commands. As Endeavour is only nine minutes from its seventh mission in space on board is the space radar laboratory and a crew of six astronauts. T minus seven minutes 30 seconds and the orbiter access arm is now being retracted away from the vehicle. This is the walkway used by the crew to gain entry into and out of the vehicle and can be returned to position within seconds if need be. And final aerosurface checks of the orbiter's flaps and rudder are being completed. This verifies the orbiter's hydraulic systems. And the three main engines are being gimbled as a final test before launch. T minus two minutes 30 seconds. All is ready to fly today on NASA's four and a half million pound space shuttle vehicle. T minus one minute 50 seconds. Everything continues to look good for launch this morning as the space shuttle Endeavour soon will begin its 10 day mission to continue its radar mapping expedition and study environmental changes on Earth. And we have a go for auto sequence start. Endeavour's on board computers have primary control of all the vehicles, critical functions. T minus 20 seconds 15, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7. We have a go for main engine start. 4, 3, 2, 1. And lift off of the space shuttle Endeavour on a mission to study the Earth's ever changing environment. Houston now controlling. Endeavour's roll maneuver is underway. Vehicles now in a heads down position on course for a 57 degree 120 nautical mile orbit. Approaching two minutes into the flight the next event is burnout and separation of the solid rocket boosters. SRB separation is confirmed. Endeavour's altitude is 170,000 feet downrange from the launch site 32 nautical miles. Now traveling 4,400 feet per second or about 3,000 miles per hour. Three and a half minutes now into Endeavour's mission. The orbiter is downrange from the launch site 91 nautical miles. Traveling 4,400 miles per hour at an altitude of 306,000 feet. Endeavour Houston, we see a nominal MECO, Homes 1 not required. Roger, nominal MECO, Homes 1 not required. This is mission control Houston. We're now receiving some videotape from the space shuttle Endeavour of the external tank as it drifts away from the shuttle Endeavour. Following today's 616 a.m. central time launch from Kennedy Space Center. This tape being sent down to us through the Merritt Island tracking station on the coast of Florida. Endeavour. In flight guidance, we see the roll. Copy guidance. Throttle up 3 at 104. Endeavour, go at throttle up. Roger, go at throttle up. SRB set. Copy SRB set. 103 converged. Single engine press 104. Endeavour, single engine press 104. We have 5 decimal, 9 or 9 or 9 or. And for the fuzzy logic error, we have all balls. Now copy. And Endeavour, Houston, we copy all, thanks. If I move to block 12, the answer to block 12 is no, I have not disabled the messages. I'll stand by for block 13 with your go. Alright, we copy, let's look at it. Now let's talk about the first of the two experiments. The first experiment is called BRIC. It's biological research in canisters. And it's sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture. There are five canisters, aluminum canisters, like this on board. Within each canister, there are 1,000 gypsy moth eggs. So we have 5,000 gypsy moth eggs flying with us here on Endeavour. Now you might ask, why do we have gypsy moth eggs on Endeavour? It turns out that the gypsy moth is a very destructive pest in the United States, especially to northeast hardwood forest. So the United States Department of Agriculture has a goal of controlling the population of gypsy moths in that area. Now the way they control gypsy moth population is by introducing sterile gypsy moths into the wild. They've tried to produce sterile gypsy moths on the ground, but it's a very difficult process and also very time consuming. We also don't know exactly the mechanism within the gypsy moths that makes them sterile, but we do have a ground process that works. Well, by accident, we have actually found out that gypsy moth eggs, if they are carried in space flight, produce sterile gypsy moths. We don't quite understand the mechanism, and that's the goal of this experiment. If we take these 5,000 gypsy moth eggs with us and give them back to the USDA after the flight, they should produce sterile gypsy moths, and the USDA will be able to look at those gypsy moths and understand the exact mechanism that creates their sterility. Now they wouldn't want us to grow sterile gypsy moths in space for introduction to the wild in mass populations, but they would like to understand the mechanism that creates sterility and hopefully reproduce it on the ground. So there's one example how going away from the Earth's surface actually can be used to solve a problem we have on Earth. So that's the first of the two experiments. The second experiment I'd like to discuss with you today is called the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth Experiment, or CPCG, and it's sponsored by the University of Alabama. Now, before I get into the details, let me tell you that the goal of this experiment, it's flown 32 times on the shuttle, by the way, is to either create new drugs or to improve drugs we already have. Now, drug design in the United States now is based on a sophisticated process called structural-based drug design. That's where experimenters, rather than taking a sample of a disease and applying different drugs to it in a somewhat haphazard way, actually study the diseases' structure, study the drugs that they might consider would solve that disease, so they just fit together. So they actually look at the structure of this crystal or drug to try and find out what exactly fits into that disease and actually would cure that disease. This National Institute of Health has named structural-based drug design as one of their number one priorities in the next 10 years. Now, unfortunately, in some cases where we grow crystals on the ground, again, trying to analyze the crystals to heal this disease, the crystals cannot be grown on the ground because of gravity. Well, the good news is that in space we don't have gravity and we can grow crystals for the scientists. Okay, what I have here is a picture on the bottom of a ground-based crystal ground and on the top is a crystal grown in space. Now, these photos are the same magnification of the same drug. So you can see that these crystals on the ground, grown on the ground, were limited in size and quality, whereas the crystals grown in space are much bigger and much better quality. Therefore, space flight produces crystals that are better quality and larger. Scientists can then take the crystals on the ground and analyze them. In our flight, we're applying something called alpha interferon. It's already a very successful drug around the world used in 60 countries to treat various forms of cancer and also viral diseases. However, remember that the goal of CPCG is either to help discover new drugs or to improve current drugs. And in our case, we're trying to improve alpha interferon. And when you try to improve a drug, you're basically trying to eliminate some of the side effects. So now, that's the second experiment I've described to you. And it's an excellent example of how we go into space to improve our lives on Earth and to solve problems we have on Earth. So when you think of NASA and the shuttle program going up into space, we go away from the Earth's surface to actually help our families and friends in the world on the ground. Okay. Flip the wrong switch. I'm doing that. I'm pushing that. Horizontal head calibration trial number two. Go right to the green center. Left to the green center. Release. Okay. Okay. And over here and show the target too. Okay. Horizontal head calibration trial number two. Oh, you can see the little dot on there. Okay. Horizontal head calibration trial number three. I'd like to take a look at the pilot side panel panel enabled switch. Flip it up to enable and then back to it. And Mario, a little bit more about one of the medical experiments. The device that's on Dan and my wrist. It's called the Actalum. And it's part of the DSO-44 that's sponsoring. And not only are they monitoring component levels in our urine and saliva, they're also monitoring the light levels that we're exposed to. Light apparently controls the production of melatonin. So the devices that we have on our wrists are actually measuring the light levels that we're exposed to 24 hours a day. In addition to measuring our levels of activity, there's some accelerometers in these devices. And so it measures our level of activity during the day. And they're particularly interested in the level of activity while we're sleeping. It can tell them whether we're sleeping very well or not. And therefore that's a good measure of how well we're adjusting our time clocks. Pretty much count on looking at the imagery after the mission. We don't have ready access to NASA's select. But we're very excited about the work that you're doing. And we'll be looking forward to seeing you after you get back to Mother Earth. Burn some of their circuit boards. A few minutes here at the end of the shift where I'd like to tell you about our activities on board. Tell you about the major components of the Space Radar Laboratory. Talk about our science goals for the week's activities. And tell you about some of the examples of global change that we look forward to sharing with the people and the scientists back on Earth. This Space Radar Lab 2 is part of NASA's mission to planet Earth. That's a program that NASA's conducting to look at Earth's life, land, water, the air around the planet, and all the interactions of those components. We're trying to understand Earth as a single complex system so that we can get a handle on the real numbers behind the changes our globe is experiencing. Now, the Space Radar Lab goal as a part of mission to planet Earth is to look for those hard numbers on Earth's changes, both man-made and natural, and try to bring those back to Earth so we can understand how we're affecting the planet and how we have to cope with those changes. To do that, we have a payload-based pool of sophisticated instruments that last flew in April on STS-59. And I'd like to tell you a bit about those, and I've got a little video segment here to show you those components. The first component we have on board Space Radar Lab is a state-of-the-art imaging radar. And we're going to show you here in this view as we come down from the overhead windows our Cersei XR radar out in the payload bay. The other component of SRL is the MAPS air pollution sensor. And in this view of the payload bay, you can see the large radar array stretching from about the forend of the bay all the way back to the tail. It's labeled JPL. That's the Cersei XR instrument. The Wigley Research Center logo is on the MAPS instrument just to the right of the screen to the left of the Canadian arm. And the small segment of antenna labeled XR is the German built component of Space Radar Lab. Now, these sensors in the cargo bay aren't very useful unless we have the crew here on board to operate them. For the imaging radar part of the mission, the crew has an essential role to play. There's a huge amount of data coming down from the instrument out there as it images the Earth's surface. And those images have to be transferred to the ground. We don't have enough communications link on board to transfer them on real-time. So the first role of the crew is to handle the data coming back from the radar. And we do that by changing out our data tapes on board. We have about 207 data tapes on board. Each of them holds 50 gigabytes of data. And we've gotten very good at practicing changing out those tapes. We hope to bring back about 52 terabits of data, something like 20,000 encyclopedia volumes of information by the time we're finished. The second part of the crew's role is to handle the photography that supports the science investigations around the world. In many regions of the world, we don't have scientific teams on the ground to validate the results from the radar or from the MAPS Pollution Sensor. And so we are the ground crews. Our photography, some 14,000 still photo frames, is going to be used to provide the environmental conditions over those targets in remote areas of the globe where we don't have independent verification. And the last thing we're doing, and probably the most important role of the crew's playing on this mission, is to point the payload bay instruments at the required targets. And to do that, we're conducting a succession of maneuvers, about 409 of them during the mission. And that's about 25,000 computer keystrokes to tell endeavors' computers how to orient the payload bay so as to get the optimum data coming back down to the ground. Now, the radar out on the cargo bay in Cersei XR is a synthetic aperture radar, and it paints a picture of the Earth's surface through darkness and clouds and can thus operate around the clock all the way around our orbits every 90 minutes around the globe. The MAPS Pollution Sensor is an infrared spectrometer, and it measures the amount of heat radiation coming up from the ground and converts that into information on how much carbon monoxide is lying just beneath a space shuttle as we go around the planet. And over a couple of days, we can construct a map of pollution sources and the way the CO is moving around the world on a day-to-day basis. And this is a very good comparison with information we got last spring and on two previous flights of MAPS. And this is just the key to our whole mission, just looking for changes around the world. We're looking for changes since last April's STS-59 mission, space radar lab one. We're looking for changes in the previous MAPS data over the last 10 years. And these two flights and other flights of NASA's mission to planet Earth will show the ability to monitor the Earth as a global system on a permanent basis. We're looking for changes like ecology changes, changes around the world, climate changes, and some dramatic changes on the surface that we're more familiar with like volcanoes and storm systems, for example. In the area of ecology, we're looking at clearing and deforestation around the world. We're looking at tropical and northern forests of the world to see the rate at which we're destroying the forest and the rate at which they're renewing themselves so we can really quantify that important phenomenon in the ecosystem. We've already seen a lot of forest fires over in Asia and in Australia, some at night over Africa and in South America as well. And our data, when we come back, will give us the rates of forest change around the world. In terms of pollution, we're looking for the way that carbon monoxide drifts around the world from its sources like forest fires. And that will help us track seasonals. We're looking for climate change by looking at the geology around the world for traces of the geologic past of rainier and drier periods in the Earth's deserts and the valleys that show alluvial fan erosion. Those are very key points to investigate for looking back into the Earth's climatic past before. And we've also been looking at several storm systems down in the Southern Ocean that we can track on a day-to-day basis. And there are targets for both the radar and some of the map's instruments because those storm systems can distribute pollution around the world. We have a busy week ahead of us here on Space Radar Lab. We've got a lot of work to do in terms of maneuvering, changing the tapes, and most important for us on a daily basis is taking all those still photos from the hacked windows. It keeps us constantly busy when there's a daylight pass going on. That's not surprising. The Earth is a very complex system. It takes a lot of study to understand it, and only a future permanent platform or a suite of instruments in orbit is going to be able to do that on a permanent basis. And we hope that by flying this test bed, we'll prove that that principle will in fact work. We're getting a taste of some of the exciting results that we're anticipating here in orbit with our own eyes. And it's going to be an exciting look at the data when we get back to the ground with those 207 data tapes to see in full fidelity what the Cersei Exar and map sensors have brought back. But we can see the changes here, and we're going to try to show them with you in the coming week. Okay, Easton, you should be getting this view of the Coutre-Squire volcano. You can see the snow-capped upper slopes, and then there's a very active eruption going on from the northeast portion of the mountain. Bezzimiani is behind the smoke plume. It looks like from the shadow height. You can even estimate the height of the eruption plume, but we're guessing at least 35 or 40,000 feet. And that dark gray dust plume goes down wind at least 500 kilometers, if not more. Okay, now this is a going away shot Easton of the volcano. You can still see the lava flows at the top of the screen where the eruption is actually originating. And this gives you a good view of the profile of the plume. And there's another wide shot that Dan took starting just now that shows you the extent of the ash plume. This is Mission Control Houston. We are receiving some data from the Space Radar Laboratory instruments. This particular data is coming down real time, or near real time, and is data as of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The orbiter is flying over this peninsula that is to the east of Russia and on the western side of the Bering Sea. Houston Endeavour, you should be getting that video now. That's firm, Dan. Once again, really just a fantastic video image. Synthetic aperture radar instrument on board Endeavour as it passes over the Raco-Michigan Supersite. These are live pictures from the XR instrument. Raco-Michigan is one of the ecology sites being studied. The ground looks just like it did then. We have a beautiful mosaic of fall colors beginning to develop, and you should be beginning to see lots of reds and yellows as you look down over our site in the days to come. You know, last night... We'll certainly be looking for it. The lighting so far has made it a little hard to distinguish colors, but we have noticed a little bit greener inland near the coastal lines of the Great Lakes. It's looked a little bit more fall like. Well, that should be proceeding along rather quickly now. We've had two nights of good hard frost with clear weather and the drying, so fall is coming quickly upon us. Endeavour is now moving across the northwestern portions of Africa. Again, using the synthetic aperture radar, it's very evident that the orbit is now crossing over land. This is a geological site, a super site again, over the Sahara Desert Area. The Sahara is an area which is about the size of the United States. There, too, it's becoming a desert area. It had been apparently well laden with fairly major drainage networks with increasing dominance of the wind and the sands and the channels and the various flood plains of the rivers began to be reworked into thin sheets and eventual scattered dunes. This is Mission Control Houston. We're now receiving some additional real-time downlink from the synthetic aperture radar instrument in Endeavour's payload bay as it flies 118 nautical miles over the coast of Japan with us again is Dr. Jeffrey Platt, the geology representative for Cersei XR. Dr. Platt, what are we looking for in these XR images? Well, at this point we're traveling over the Sea of Japan and this is an inland body, not an inland body. This is the straight between the northern tip of the island of Hokkaido which was the vicinity of the offshore earthquake earlier today. Dr. Platt, is there any possibility we'll see any change in the shoreline because of the waves that have been in the area? That is the type of observation that we would be interested in making in this case perhaps looking for ponded water or any bright returns, bright radar returns from the near shore area. Here we're coming over the southwest corner and then beyond in the top of the screen there is the northeast section of the island and there's no obvious evidence of damage but this is going by rather fast and we'd certainly need more time to sit down and do a detailed processing and analysis of the image. And the next day to take underway with the synthetic aperture radar in Endeavour's payload bay as the orbiter attracts northeast now approaching the Great Lakes region. The Raco-Michigan super site is located on the eastern end of Michigan's upper peninsula. The particular site of interest is located between forested regions in the northern temperate forest which is known as a transitional zone that is expected to be ecologically sensitive to global changes. The baseline studies are of the vegetation areas and those areas are essential for being studied in monitoring the global changes. Again the orbiter is tracking along the Great Lakes area to the northeast. Coming up here is the shoreline of one of the islands and we can clearly see the volcanoes on those islands. These are some of the most remote volcanoes in the world and some of the least studies because of the remoteness and the difficulty of getting to them. In addition this area is often cloud covered and makes it difficult for aerial observations or satellite observations. Once we get the radar set up and ready to go it's ready to start taking data and the next scene that you're going to see is a picture of us passing over the Sahara Desert. As you can see that to the eye it doesn't look very like there are many features but when you turn the radar on this is what the radar can see underneath the ground or ancient riverbeds and that was part of our study. This was a geological site that we wanted to understand the history of how the Sahara Desert became what it is today because obviously its climate in the past must have been very different to have these riverbeds underneath. Now we were looking... Is it that cloud covered it all Dan? See it. Is it wide open? Yeah. Oh great. Five six? Five six. This is mission control Houston endeavors tracking across the northeast portions of North America just to move off the coastline just to the north of Newfoundland. Views coming from the payload bay cameras aboard the orbiter. Let's see where it is. You see the pincers and there's kind of like a little gradual bend. That's after that gradual bend. There's a little harbor there. Yeah. Is it that cloud covered it all Dan? See it. Is it wide open? Yeah. Oh great. That stops for the five six? Five six. Oh man, you see here. It's told us correctly right over here. Let's see it. Two feet. Stop. Ten seconds for the five six. Looks like you should have come. Sixty eight seconds. Endeavour on energy at the ninety. Approaching one thousand feet. And the landing gear is now down and locked. Main gear touchdown. And nose gear touchdown. Endeavour rolling out on runway two two at the Edwards Air Force Base facility in California after 183 orbits of the earth traveling four million seven hundred three thousand miles. Roger, we'll step endeavor and walk them home. Bakes you and your crew have done a great job and made a significant contribution to the mission to planet Earth. We on the ground are proud of your work and proud to be a part of this flight. Well done. The castle's open. Ground speed naval auto load release. Happy? Roger, we'll step endeavor and walk them home. Bakes you and your crew have done a great job and made a significant contribution to the mission to planet Earth. We on the ground are proud of your work and proud to be a part of this flight. Well done. Thank you very much Houston. No Delta's flying. Copy. No post landing Delta's. We'll pick up with Convoy Commander Endeavour. How do you read?