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Shuttle Carrier Aircraft .]] Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour ( Space Shuttle to be built. ''Endeavour'' is often referred to as "the baby of the shuttle fleet," as she is the youngest shuttle, at only 14 years old. The United States Congress authorized the construction of ''Endeavour'' in 1987 to replace ''Challenger'' , which was lost in an Explosion in 1986. Structural spares from the construction of shuttles '' Discovery '' and '' Atlantis '' were used in its assembly. The decision to build Endeavour was favored over refitting '' Enterprise '' because it was cheaper. ''Endeavour'' was delivered by Rockwell International in May 1991 and first launched a year later, in May 1992. Rockwell International claimed that they had made no profit on Space Shuttle Endeavour, in spite of it costing 2.2 billion dollars USD. On her first mission, she captured and redeployed the stranded ''INTELSAT VI'' communications satellite. In 1993, she made the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope . ''Endeavour'' was withdrawn from service for eight months in 1997 for a retrofit, including installation of a new airlock. In December 1998, she delivered the Unity Module to the International Space Station . ''Endeavour'' was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools. The orbiter is named after HM Bark ''Endeavour'' , the ship commanded by 18th century explorer James Cook ; the name also honored ''Endeavour'', the Command Module of Apollo 15 . This is why the name is spelled in the British English manner, rather than the American English spelling, "Endeavor". As of August 2005, ''Endeavour'' is still in her Orbiter Major Modification period, which began in December 2003 and is expected to last through sometime in 2006. She is currently in the Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2, along with her sister ''Atlantis'', at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. UPGRADES AND FEATURES ''Endeavour'' features new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities. Most of this equipment was later incorporated into the other three orbiters during out-of-service major inspection and modification programs. Endeavour's upgrades include:
FLIGHTS Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' has flown 19 flights, spent 206.60 days in space, completed 3,259 orbits, and flown 85,072,077 miles (136,910,237 km) in total, As Of February 2003 . She last flew in November 2002. ENDEAVOUR IN FICTION
DECOMMISSIONING OF SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR
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