NASA announced on Monday target launch dates for the remaining space shuttle missions on the current manifest in fiscal year 2009 and 2010.
The manifest includes one flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, seven assembly flights to the International Space Station, and two station contingency flights, planned to be completed before the end of fiscal year 2010, the federal space agency announced in a statement.
NASA has now three active service shuttles -- Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour. It previously selected Oct. 8 and Nov. 10in 2008 as launch dates for Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service Hubble and Endeavour's STS-126 mission to supply the space station and service the station's solar panel joints.
The five shuttle missions by the three shuttles in 2009 are arranged respectively on Feb. 12, May 15, July 30, Oct. 15 and Dec.10. And the three shuttle flights in 2010 will be on Feb. 11, April 8 and May 31.
The approved target dates are subject to change based on processing and other launch vehicle schedules. "They reflect the agency's commitment to complete assembly of the station and to retire the shuttle fleet as transition continues to the new launch vehicles," said the statement.
Source: Xinhua
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