Spacers

Final Shuttle Moved To November

Endeavour's mission STS-134 has become the final Space Shuttle mission, its launch date moving past the previous final mission set for September, Discovery's STS-133 due to the replacement of the primary magnet in its payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, to take advantage of the recent announcement of the extension of ISS through 2020. As the Shuttle program winds down it was expected that there would be several delays and shifts, and even speculation that NASA would miss its target of flying all the remaining missions before the end of 2010, the deadline set by the Bush administration for retiring the ageing fleet. This may of course still happen, but for now it looks like Shuttle watchers will get their final chance a little closer to Christmas.


Meanwhile, the STS-132 mission with Space Shuttle Atlantis is on target for a May 14th launch, with a successful rollout of the orbiter to the launch pad last week. Propellants are now loaded on board the orbiter making it ready for maneuvering in space.

Keep it tuned to Spacers for updates on the mission and live blogging of the launch.

SpaceHead