Space Shuttle Endeavour is cleared to launch at 7:55 p.m. ET Nov. 14 from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on its STS-126 Mission to the International Space Station, top NASA leaders announced.

After an hours-long flight readiness review, Bill Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for space operations, said, "The vehicle is ready."

While there is some open paperwork for minor fixes needed before liftoff, overall the shuttle is in "very good" shape to fly, he told space journalists on a teleconference.

One minority opinion expressed in the review was that an area of the main engine on the shuttles should be inspected before each flight, and that made sense, so the inspection will be performed on all remaining future shuttle flights, Gerstenmaier said. President Bush has ordered the shuttle fleet to cease flying by October 2010, though there is speculation that the next president, who will be elected tomorrow, may order shuttles to continue flying past that deadline.

Endeavour and its crew of seven will take major equipment for addition to the space station, and the crew also will perform four spacewalks, with outdoor chores including cleaning debris from Solar Array Rotary Joints, or SARJ. That debris has restricted movement of the joint, which otherwise would keep a solar array aimed toward the sun for maximum electrical power generation.

Such tasks on the space station will provide useful know-how for making repairs in lunar or interplanetary missions, John Shannon, space shuttle program manager, said.

Overall, he said, the review showed "no significant issues we were working," so that "we’re in very good shape to go fly."

Endeavour is headed aloft in a change of plans.

Originally, Endeavour was to remain on the ground for now, on Launch Pad 39B, while Space Shuttle Atlantis went aloft last month on the STS-125 mission to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. But the telescope developed a last-minute glitch, so that Atlantis won’t fly until May, or later. (Please see separate story in this issue.)

That meant Atlantis, which had been poised on Pad 39A for the Hubble mission, instead had to trundle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be demated from the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.

Then Space Shuttle Discovery will be mounted on that stack for its STS-119 Mission to take yet another major structural component to the space station, Gerstenmaier said.

Poor Atlantis. It seems that shuttle is star-crossed, always having bad luck, and it "got bitten" yet again, Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, said.

And he’s right. Atlantis once came close to being hit by lightning. It was in the path of a hurricane that veered away only at the last minutes. It had a problem with fuel gauge sensor lines that bedeviled NASA experts for weeks. On and on.

Meanwhile, Endeavour thus far has shown peaceful progress toward its impending launch, having been rolled around from Pad 39B to Pad 39A.

The Endeavour mission will involve repair work to the station and install items to prepare it for housing six crew members during long-duration missions.

The primary focus of the 15-day flight and its four planned spacewalks is to service the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints, which allow its solar arrays to track the sun.

Endeavour will carry about 32,000 pounds to orbit, including supplies and equipment necessary to double the crew size from three to six members in spring 2009. The new station cargo includes additional sleeping quarters, a second toilet and a resistance exercise device.

The STS-126 Mission commander will be Christopher Ferguson. He will be joined by Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Donald Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn- Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus. Magnus will replace space station crew member Greg Chamitoff, who has been aboard the station for more than five months.

She will return to Earth during the next shuttle liftoff, the Discovery STS-119 Mission targeted to launch in February.