Endeavour, the newest member to join the Space Shuttle fleet, was made as a replacement for the orbiter Challenger. Challenger was lost in 1986 in a tragic flight, due to a frozen o-ring in the right solid rocket booster. This new addition to the Shuttle fleet was named after a first ship commanded by James Cook, the 18th century British explorer, navigator and astronomer. On Endeavour's maiden voyage in August 1768, Cook sailed to the South Pacific to observe and record the infrequent event of the planet Venus passing between the Earth and the Sun. Determining the transit of Venus allowed early astronomers to find the distance of the Sun from the Earth, which then could be used as a unit of measurement in calculating the parameters of the universe. In 1769, Cook was the first person to fully chart New Zealand (which was discovered in 1642 by the Dutchman Abel Tasman from the Dutch province of Zeeland). Cook also surveyed the eastern coast of Australia and navigated the Great Barrier Reef.
Cook's voyage on the Endeavour also demonstrated the usefulness of sending scientists on voyages of exploration. While sailing with Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks and Carl Solander collected many new families and species of plants and encountered many new species of animals life. Endeavour and her crew reportedly made the first long-distance voyage on which no crewman died from scurvy, the dietary disease caused by lack of ascorbic acids. Cook is credited with being the first captain to use diet as a cure for scurvy, when he made his crew eat cress, sauerkraut and an orange extract.
Endeavour was small at about 368 tons, 100 feet in length and 20 feet in width. In contrast, its modern day namesake is 78 tons, 122 feet in length and 78 feet wide and weighed 151,205 at roll-out and 172,000 with main engines installed. The Endeavour of Captain Cook's day had a round bluff bow and a flat bottom. The ship's career ended on a reef along Rhode Island.
To name this Shuttle, a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools produced the name of the new orbiter; it was announced by President George Bush in 1989. The Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavour was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in May 1991, and flew its' first mission, highlighted by a dramatic rescue of a stranded communications satellite, a year later in May 1992.
Endeavour features new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities. Most of this equipment will be incorporated into the other three orbiters during out-of-service major inspection and modification programs like (OMDP). Endeavour's upgrades include: A 40-foot diameter drag chute that is suppose to slow the orbiter's roll-out distance by 1,000 to 2,000 feet. The plumbing and electrical connections needed for Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) modifications to allow up to 28-day missions. Updated avionics systems that include advanced general purpose computers, improved inertial measurement units and tactical air navigation systems, enhanced master events controllers and multiplexer-demultiplexers, a solid-state star tracker and improved nose wheel steering mechanisms. An improved version of the Auxiliary Power Units (APU's) that provide power to operate the Shuttle's hydraulic systems.
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