Image above: Space shuttle Endeavour is revealed on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida following rollback of the rotating service structure. Image credit: NASA TV

STS-127 Mission Overview
The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.
 

Image above: Front row, Commander Mark Polansky (right) and Pilot Doug Hurley. Back row (left to right), astronauts Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Canadian Space Agency's Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn and Tim Kopra, all mission specialists. Kopra is scheduled to join Expedition 20 as flight engineer after launching to the International Space Station with the STS-127 crew. Image credit: NASA

Mark L. Polansky will command the shuttle Endeavour for STS-127. Douglas G. Hurley will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are Christopher J. Cassidy, Thomas H. Marshburn, David A. Wolf and Julie Payette, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

The mission will deliver Timothy L. Kopra to the station as a flight engineer and science officer and return Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to Earth. Hurley, Cassidy, Marshburn and Kopra will be making their first trips to space.

Endeavour sets sail on its 23rd mission with the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The facility will provide a type of "front porch" for experiments in the exposed environment, and a robotic arm that will be attached to the Kibo Pressurized Module and used to position experiments outside the station. The mission will include five spacewalks.

STS-127 is the 29th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.