Illinois astronaut headed into space again

BELLEVILLE -- An astronaut with Illinois ties is heading back into space.

Forty-four-year-old Belleville native Sandra Magnus is scheduled to lift off Friday with six other astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the space shuttle Endeavor.

Their mission is to outfit the International Space Station to support larger crews. They'll also do necessary maintenance on the orbiting laboratory.

While the rest of her crew returns to Earth after 15 days, Magnus will stay to replace Gregory Chamitoff (SHAM'-it-ahf) on the space station. She'll be a flight engineer and NASA science officer who will conduct experiments and complete research.

She spent 10 days, 19 hours and 58 minutes in space on the shuttle Atlantis in 2002.