CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA managers on Friday cleared the US space shuttle Endeavor for lift-off on March 11 on the first of three flights to deliver Japanese research complex to the International Space Station.

As a result to the destroyed Columbia in 2003, the blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was scheduled to take place at 2:28 a.m. EST. The shuttle Atlantis returned from a mission to deliver Europe’s Columbus research laboratory to the space station on February 20.

The seven-man Endeavour crew includes two of NASA’s most experienced fliers, four rookies and Japan’s Takao Doi, who already participated in a shuttle research mission in 1997.

Endeavour’s mission will also include a test of heat shield repair technique NASA wants to demonstrate before a servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope in late August or Early September.

NASA is hoping to fly six shuttle missions this year. The space agency needs to carry out 11 remaining space station construction missions by September 2010 when the shuttles are set for retirement.