Updated Spacecraft Departs for Florida

PALMDALE — After months of modifications at a Palmdale facility that will enable it to dock with space stations of the present and future, the space shuttle Endeavour headed home to Florida on Wednesday morning atop a Boeing 747, according to NASA officials.

The 6 a.m. takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base began the first of a two-leg ferry flight that will also take the spacecraft through the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, before arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham.

The shuttle was grounded last year for its first Orbiter Maintenance Down Period--a routine NASA procedure that applies to all four orbiters, as the spaceships are called by NASA.

The work on Endeavour entailed 100 modifications--10 of them to enable the craft to work with the International Space Station that is still in the works, Buckingham said.

He said the most extensive was the installation of an external air lock, replacing its original internal air lock.

With its modifications, the 11-mission veteran should be able to dock with both the International Space Station and Russia’s Mir Space Station, authorities said.