STS-118 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by the orbiter Endeavour. STS-118 successfully 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.
It was the first flight of Endeavour since the STS-113 mission in November 2002, which was the last successful Space Shuttle flight before the loss of Columbia on STS-107. STS-118 pilot Charles Hobaugh had been the entry team CAPCOM for STS-107. Had Columbia not disintegrated, it would have been chosen for this mission, which would have been its 29th mission, and probably 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 as well as bringing 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 of Endeavour during liftoff. Foam impact was the cause of the destruction of Columbia, but the extent of damage was very small in comparison and in a less 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 structure beneath.
Read more about STS-118: Crew, Mission Parameters, Mission Payloads, Mission Background, Extra-vehicular Activity, Wake-up Calls, Contingency Mission