Final US shuttle flight pushed to November

Washington - The final space shuttle flight is now set for November, after US space agency NASA decided to delay the launch of shuttle Endeavor from July.

Endeavor's mission was originally set to be the second from the last flight with the shuttle fleet retiring after the planned September launch of the shuttle Discovery.

But NASA changed its launch schedule Monday, swapping the shuttle flights to allow scientists to make upgrades to a piece of scientific equipment known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer that is to be delivered by Endeavor.

The shuttle has been set for retirement for years and the remaining three flights are to complete construction work on the International Space Station.

NASA has said it will complete all scheduled flights even if they must be extended to 2011, and there's money in the budget for the next year to complete any remaining flights.

In February, the Obama administration announced it would scrap plans started under former president George W Bush for a next- generation spacecraft to replace the shuttle and return astronauts to the moon and eventually travel to Mars and beyond.

Instead, US President Barack Obama hopes to develop a commercial spaceflight industry to shuttle astronauts to nearby locations and allow NASA to focus on more distant manned missions.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320864,final-us-shuttle-flight-pushed-to-november.html.