Canadian Space Agency astronaut and physician Dave Williams, who is set to launch in August aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, will be available for satellite interviews from 2 to 4 p.m. CDT on Friday, July 13. Williams, a former emergency room physician, will be making his second spaceflight. He first flew as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Columbia on the STS-90 mission in April 1998. During the Endeavour mission, designated STS-118, he will conduct at least two spacewalks to continue assembly of the International Space Station. The Canadian Space Agency selected Williams, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, as an astronaut in 1992. He began training with NASA three years later. His career includes participating in two missions as a crew member in the Aquarius Underwater Research Facility off the Florida coast.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-118 is scheduled to be launched from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, US, at 23:00 GMT on the 7th August 2007.
Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew are scheduled to continue the next phase of International Space Station assembly with an August 7 launch and an 11-day mission to the orbital outpost. The mission, STS-118, will deliver another truss (backbone) to the station and mark the first flight of mission specialist Barbara Morgan, a teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago.