Swarms of NASA space shuttle mission managers, engineers and contractors are meeting to pin down a firm August launch date for the Endeavour orbiter and its STS-118 crew.

Mission managers were expected to begin their two-day Flight Readiness Review at about 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The meeting will review Endeavour’s readiness to launch its STS-118 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than Aug. 7.

The STS-118 astronaut crew includes teacher-turned-spaceflyer Barbara Morgan - who served as backup for NASA’s first Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe before the agency’s 1986 Challenger tragedy. The seven Endeavour astronauts will deliver a fresh load of cargo, spare parts and a new starboard piece of the station’s main truss that serves as the outpost’s metallic backbone.

Flight Readiness Reviews are standard meetings that precede every shuttle launch to allow shuttle officials to determine an orbiter’s status for flight and go over any outstanding issues. Among other things expected to be discussed during Endeavour’s review are the shuttle’s readiness after years of modifications and upgrades since its last flight in 2002, the presence of some unmixed rubber in the protective O-rings on the orbiter’s boosters and a firm target for the mission’s August launch.

NASA will hold a press conference at 3:00 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Thursday, July 26 to present the results of Endeavour’s review and announce an official launch date.

You can watch that press conference live via SPACE.com’s NASA TV feed, which is available here.