12. Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour

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Endeavour OV-105
Space Shuttle Endeavour on launch pad 39A prior to mission STS-127, May 31, 2009
OV designation	OV-105
Country	United States
Contract award	July 31, 1987
Named after	HMS Endeavour (1764)
Status	Retired, displayed at California Science Center in Los Angeles, California
First flight	STS-49 May 7, 1992 – May 16, 1992
Last flight	Ferry flight on SCA NASA905 to Los Angeles, California September 19–21, 2012
Number of missions	25
Crew members	154
Time spent in space	296 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes, 2 seconds
Number of orbits	4,671
Distance travelled	122,883,151 mi (197,761,262 km)
Satellites deployed	3
Mir dockings	1
ISS dockings	12

Endeavour as photographed from the International Space Station as it approached the station during STS-118

Endeavour appears to straddle the stratosphere and mesosphere in this photo taken from the International Space Station

Space Shuttle Endeavour (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105) is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States.^[1] Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, and first flew in May 1992 on mission STS-49 and its last mission STS-134 was in May 2011.^[2][3] The STS-134 mission was originally planned as the final mission of the Space Shuttle program,^[4] but with authorization of the STS-135 mission, Atlantis became the last Space Shuttle to fly.
The United States Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace Challenger, which was lost in the STS-51-L launch accident in 1986. Structural spares built during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis, two of the previous shuttles, were used in its assembly. NASA chose to build Endeavour from spares rather than refitting Enterprise or accepting a Rockwell International proposal to build two shuttles for the price of one of the original shuttles, on cost grounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Endeavour