STS-118

STS-118 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by the orbiter Endeavour. STS-118 lifted off on 8 August 2007 from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC on 21 August 2007.

This was the first flight of Endeavour since STS-113 in November 2002, which was also the last successful shuttle flight before STS-107 which culminated in the loss of Columbia when it disintegrated during reentry. STS-118 pilot Charles Hobaugh had been the entry team CAPCOM for STS-107. Columbia would have been chosen for this mission, for what would have been its 29th mission, and its first and likely its only mission to the ISS.

The mission is also referred to as ISS-13A.1 by the ISS program. The mission added two more components to the ISS and brought supplies for its crew.

During and after the mission, the media focused heavily on a small puncture in the heat shield, created by a piece of insulation foam that came off the external tank during liftoff, though the foam impact that ultimately destroyed Columbia caused more damage and was in a critical area. KSC Launch Director Michael D. Leinbach mentioned in the post-flight news conference that upon initial inspection on the ground, "Endeavour appears to be the 'cleanest' post-flight orbiter since Return to Flight". On 31 August 2007, NASA reported that the damaged tiles had been removed in the Orbiter Processing Facility, and engineers had found no evidence of heat-related damage to the orbiter itself.