When is the new schedule set for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery?”
The space shuttle Endeavour stands atop Pad 39A before sunrise at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on June 13, 2009. NASA postponed the shuttle’s planned 7:17 a.m. EDT launch due to a gas leak on the pad. Credit: NASA TV. The STS-127 crew members for shuttle Endeavour are: (from left) mission specialists Tom Marshburn, Christopher Cassidy, Tim Kopra and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, pilot Doug Hurley, commander Mark Polansky and mission specialist Dave Wolf. Behind them are the tops of Endeavour’s orange external fuel tank and one of the two solid rocket boosters. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.
(CNN) — Space shuttle Discovery is set to launch next week on a mission to the international space station, NASA’s Flight Readiness Review team said Wednesday. Launch is scheduled for 1:36 a.m. ET Tuesday, NASA said. However, launches often are delayed because of inclement weather or technical concerns. Discovery will carry a crew of seven astronauts as it ferries equipment to the space station. One of the astronauts, Nicole Stott, will remain on the space station as a flight engineer, replacing astronaut Timothy Kopra, who will return home aboard Discovery as a mission specialist, according to the NASA Web page for the mission. Discovery will also be carrying the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) to the space station. The treadmill is named for fake newsman Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Earlier this year, NASA conducted an online poll to name the space station’s newest compartment, asking voters to choose one of four
After two delays over four days, the space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew are set for launch Friday night on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. The crew will deliver the treadmill named for comedian-satirist Stephen Colbert to the station, along with laboratory hardware, a new crew sleep station, and other supplies. Astronauts are scheduled to conduct three spacewalks for maintenance tasks. And the mission will return station crew member Timothy Kopra, leaving astronaut Nichole Stott on the station, as part of a regular crew rotation. The launch, scheduled for 11:59 Eastern Daylight Time, originally was to have taken place early Tuesday morning, but at the last minute bad weather forced launch director Peter Nickolenko to scrub the attempt. The team aimed for a Wednesday morning launch. But that attempt was canceled when controllers couldn’t tell if a critical valve had closed, as it was supposed to do, as the fueling process ended.
