Endeavour's launch has drawn widespread attention because it's the second-to-last for the U.S. space shuttle program, and it's commanded by the husband of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a shooting rampage in Tucson in January. Six people were killed and 13, including Giffords, were injured.
Despite her wounds, Giffords travelled to the Kennedy Space Center from her Houston hospital Wednesday. NASA said she would watch the launch in private. It's unclear whether Giffords will now remain in Florida.
"She was very excited to not only be here...but to also be out of the hospital," Giffords' brother-in-law astronaut, Scott Kelly, said in an exclusive interview Thursday with ABC News affiliate KTRK's Kevin Quinn. "I can't think of the exact words but it's very important to her...she is very excited about it."
Tens of thousands of spectators have been flooding the Florida Space Coast, also hoping to catch a glimpse of Endeavour's farewell mission. Officials have anticipated a crowd of 45,000 at the Kennedy Space Center and more than 750,000 along roadways nearby.
President Obama and the first family, who had also planned to attend the launch, still travelled to Cape Canaveral for a tour of NASA's Orbiter Processing Facilities. Earlier in the day they went to see some of the tornado damage in Alabama.
When it does get underway, Endeavour, its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters will weigh more than 4.5 million pounds at liftoff, but reach 100 miles per hour in 10 seconds, NASA says.
The shuttle will head northeast, gaining speed and altitude as it skirts the Eastern Seaboard, passes over Halifax, Nova Scotia, and heads out over the Atlantic Ocean. On the way, it will jettison its rocket boosters and external fuel tank, which will plunge into the sea.
In orbit, Endeavour will reach speeds of over 17,200 miles per hour, or 25 times faster than the speed of sound.
NASA says the mission is the most scientifically significant since the flight to repair the Hubble Space Telescope two years ago.
The shuttle is carrying a $2 billion alpha magnetic spectrometer, an instrument that will be installed on the space station. It could prove or disprove the Big Bang Theory of how the universe was formed.
"We think we are going to find something really exciting, but we just don't know what it is," said Nobel prize-winning physicist Samuel Ting, whose research led to the design of the device.
Endeavour's flight will be the 134th for a U.S. space shuttle. Shuttle Discovery ended its career earlier this year; Atlantis is expected to make its trip to space in June.
NASA recently announced the retirement homes for its shuttle fleet. Endeavour will head to the California Science Center near Los Angeles after it's decommissioned. Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum outside Washington, D.C., and Atlantis will remain on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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