The three T-38 jet trainers with the STS-97 astronauts aboard taxi down the runway at Kennedy Space Center. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

With forecasters predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather, the crew of space shuttle Endeavour flew to the Kennedy Space Center late today for blastoff Thursday night on a high stakes space station assembly mission.

"We're real happy to be here today," commander Brent Jett told a small group of reporters at the Shuttle Landing Facility. "We really appreciate you all coming out. We know there's another big story going on in Florida today and we're happy you're interested in the space program."

Jett, pilot Michael Bloomfield, Canadian robot arm operator Marc Garneau and spacewalkers Joseph Tanner and Carlos Noriega arrived at the Florida spaceport at 4:56 p.m. after a flight from Houston aboard T-38 jet trainers.

Engineers at the nearby launch control center started Endeavour's countdown at 1 a.m. Tuesday for a launch attempt at 10:06 p.m. Thursday. The forecast calls for good weather Thursday, Friday and Saturday with only a slight chance for low clouds to form that could cause problems.

The goal of the 101st shuttle mission is to deliver a $600 million set of solar arrays to the international space station that will provide the power needed to begin scientific research next year. Called the P6 arrays, the solar panels will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip, the largest structure ever erected in orbit.

The station's current crew - commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev - chatted with Jett's crew Sunday to discuss the upcoming visit.

"We were talking to Shep, Yuri and Sergei, the Alpha crew, yesterday and they were very anxious for us to get up there," Jett said. "They're real anxious to get P6 and the power on board. I reminded Shep, I said 'well Shep, there are hundreds and hundreds of things that have to go right for us to launch on Thursday.'

The five astronauts address reporters at the Shuttle Landing Facility. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

"He understands that, he's flown on the shuttle before. But what gives us the confidence to think we are going to get airborne this week is we've got a great launch team here. We know they're going to work real hard this week when they pick up the count tonight."

Tanner and Noriega plan to stage three spacewalks to attach the P6 array to the space station; to electrically wire it into the station's electrical system; and to install instrumentation to help engineers better understand the station's electrical environment.

"We fully appreciate the thousands of people and the years of work that have gone into getting P6 ready to fly in space," Tanner said. "We feel like we're privileged to be the people who get to carry up all their work and all their hopes for a fantastic payload. Thursday night, when the SRBs light, it'll be a great celebration for all those people."

Garneu took a moment to thank the crew's families for putting up with a brutal training schedule over the past few years.

"We've been training for about two years for this mission and believe me, they've been training along with us and they're very, very glad to see this moment come," he said.

"They have also had to prepare in many ways for this very big moment and there have been some hard moments for them, too. So we would like to show our appreciation to our spouses and our children."