By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct 29 (Reuters) - Seven astronauts climbed aboard the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday in a practice run for a mission to deliver equipment needed to prepare the International Space Station for a larger crew.

Endeavour is tentatively scheduled for launch on Nov. 14 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA managers will review flight preparations and set a firm launch date on Thursday.

The shuttle is slated to spend 15 days in orbit, 11 of them parked at the space station.

The delivery will help expand the station's live-aboard crew from three astronauts to six.

"We're turning the space station from a three-bedroom, one-bath outpost to a five-bedroom, two-bath orbiting laboratory from which we can conduct science for years to come," Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson told reporters during an informal briefing at the launch pad.

For Endeavour's three rookies, the dress rehearsal was the first time they were able to sit inside the space shuttle, which is poised at a seaside launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.

"It's just a great opportunity to get in the real vehicle and just get more comfortable," said Shane Kimbrough, who will be making his first spaceflight along with Endeavour pilot Eric Boe and flight engineer Steve Bowen.

Astronaut Sandra Magnus will be swapping places with station flight engineer Greg Chamitoff, who has been aboard the outpost since May. Rounding out the crew are Donald Pettit and lead spacewalker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

In addition to delivering new sleeping quarters, a second toilet and a system to recycle wastewater, the astronauts hope to repair a rotary joint needed to pivot the station's solar arrays so they can track the sun for power.

Also on Wednesday, NASA managers defended progress on a new ship to replace the shuttle, saying reports of engineering problems with the craft's design are overblown and inaccurate.

Doug Cooke, the deputy associate administrator for NASA's exploration program, said engineers expected to have to solve such problems with a new spacecraft and they were not insurmountable.

"We haven't done something of this magnitude in over three decades," Cooke told reporters on a conference call.

NASA is designing a new rocket and capsule that will be able to ferry astronauts to and from the space station as well as the moon. The first flight is expected in 2015, about five years after the space shuttles are retired. (Editing by Jim Loney and Eric Beech)

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