Shuttle Discovery ready for launch

Sat, 19 Feb 2011

Washington - The space shuttle Discovery is due to make its final flight later this month after a nearly four month delay, the US space agency NASA said Friday.

NASA set lift-off for February 24 at 2150 GMT from Cape Canaveral for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The flight was to have taken place in October before being delayed several times after technicians discovered cracks in the shuttle's external fuel tank.

The mission will deliver the last major US contribution to the ISS - an extra room - along with supplies, including a human-like robot, known as Robonaut 2 (R2), the first-such robot ever sent to space.

The oldest vehicle in the operating space shuttle fleet, Discovery entered construction in 1979 and blasted off into space for the first time in 1984.

The shuttle fleet is due to be retired later this year, with one and possibly two flights after Discovery lands.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/368092,shuttle-discovery-ready-launch.html.