spacetoday.net: NASA moves up next shuttle launch

Posted: Thu, Jan 25, 2007, 8:10 AM ET (1310 GMT)
STS-115: launch (NASA)

Shuttle managers decided Wednesday to move up the launch of the next shuttle mission by one day to March 15. The mission, STS-117, had been scheduled to lift off on the morning of March 16, but will now take place a day early to give the space agency addition time to launch the shuttle Atlantis before the launch window closes on March 29. The shuttle has to complete its mission to the ISS at least 72 hours before the April 9 launch of a Soyuz mission to the station, to avoid having both the shuttle and Soyuz in the vicinity of the station at the same time. The goal of the 11-day shuttle mission is to attach a new truss segment and set of solar arrays to the ISS.