Obama misses shuttle launch

President Obama was not able to watch the rescheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday morning.
 
Obama was en route to Memphis, Tenn., to tour damage from flooding there and speak at a high-school graduation when the shuttle lifted off just before 9 a.m., Carney told reporters.
 
"I think we were on Marine One," Carney said. "We did not watch it."

Obama had been scheduled to watch the launch live in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 29, but it was scuttled by mechanical issues.
 
The president went to the Kennedy Space Center anyway, taking a tour and meeting with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who is recovering from being shot in a January assassination attempt. Giffords's husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is commander of the shuttle, which took off Monday morning at 8:53 a.m.
 
The mission to the International Space Station is the final flight for Endeavour, and the penultimate flight for the space shuttle program. The shuttle will spend its retirement at the California Space Center in Los Angeles.