Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA officials are optimistic the weather will cooperate for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour with a Minnesota astronaut aboard.
Conditions are at 70 percent for the launch at 6:55 p.m. Minnesota time.
St. Paul native Heidi Stefanyshn-Piper will be the lead spacewalker for the job of repairing a rotary joint that allows solar panels on the International Space Station to track the sun. She’ll go on three of the four scheduled spacewalks.
Stefanyshn-Piper is a graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall High School and is making her second shuttle flight.
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She says she hopes to get a photo of St. Paul from space this time. On her last flight, she says, spotting St. Paul or even the Mississippi River from 200 miles up was not so easy.
