NASA Delays Shuttle Endeavour Launch
CAPE CANAVERAL (CBS4) -- The space shuttle Endeavour will have to wait a little longer to take its final voyage. NASA has delayed the mission because it conflicts with Russia's plans to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station.
Shuttle Endeavour was supposed to blast off April 19 with the husband of wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly, at the helm. The launch is now scheduled for April 29th at 3:47 p.m.
NASA announced the postponement Monday, after conferring over the weekend with the Russian Space Agency and other space station partners.
It will be Endeavour's final flight and the next-to-last shuttle mission. Shuttle Atlantis will close out the 30-year shuttle program this summer. An unmanned Russian cargo ship is set to blast off at the end of April. NASA did not want the craft docking at the International Space Station while Endeavour was still there. Now, the cargo ship will arrive first.
NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said the Russians were reluctant to postpone the supply run because of a time-sensitive biological experiment aboard the craft.
Kelly and five crewmates will deliver a $2 billion physics experiment to the space station, as well as critical spare parts to keep the orbiting outpost running for another decade. The physics experiment is expected to shed light on the nature and evolution of the universe using an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Four spacewalks are planned during the flight.
The two-week mission will be the last for Endeavour, the baby of NASA's shuttle fleet. It was built to replace Challenger, which was destroyed during liftoff in 1986.
The postponement puts the launch, scheduled for 3:47 p.m., on the same day as the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Endeavour is checking out fine at the launch pad following last week's severe storms that brought high wind, lightning strikes, hail and even funnel clouds to Kennedy Space Center. Only inconsequential damage was found on the insulating foam of Endeavour's external fuel tank, officials said.
Mark Kelly returned to training in February after taking time off to be at his wife's hospital bedside. Giffords was shot in the head in Tucson, Ariz., in early January. She is recuperating in Houston, home to Kelly and the rest of NASA's astronaut corps. Kelly said last week that he's awaiting doctors' final approval for his wife to attend his launch.
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