spacetoday.net: Hubble servicing mission delayed

Posted: Fri, May 2, 2008, 7:35 AM ET (1135 GMT)
STS-122: launch (NASA/KSC)

A shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed at least four weeks because of production delays with the shuttle's external tank, NASA officials said Thursday. Shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to launch on August 28 on the long-awaited STS-125 mission to service Hubble, but that mission will now be pushed back, most likely to early October. That and later missions are being delayed four to five weeks because of changes in the production of the shuttle's external tanks to fully incorporate design modifications made after the Columbia accident. A complicating factor is that since STS-125 will not be going to the ISS, there is no option for the shuttle to stay there as a "safe haven" should a problem prevent the orbiter from returning as planned, requiring a second shuttle be ready to launch on a rescue mission. The delays also mean that NASA will perform five missions in 2008, instead of the planned six, but officials said there was still plenty of room in the schedule to complete all the remaining shuttle missions before the end of 2010.