spacetoday.net: NASA announces schedule for remaining shuttle launches

Posted: Tue, Jul 8, 2008, 8:24 AM ET (1224 GMT)
STS-124: launch (NASA/KSC)

NASA announced on Monday the tentative schedule for the remaining 10 launches of the space shuttle, with the final launch now scheduled for mid-2010. The schedule features two more launches in 2008, the STS-125 Hubble repair mission in October and the STS-126 mission to the ISS in November. Five shuttle launches are planned for 2009, followed by the final three missions in 2010. The final shuttle mission, STS-133, is planned for launch on May 31, 2010. The plan would allow the agency to meet its goal of completing the assembly of the International Space Station and retire the shuttle in 2010 with months to spare. A NASA authorization bill passed by the House last month and currently under consideration by the Senate would add an additional shuttle mission to the manifest to deliver the AMS-02 experiment to the station; that provision of the bill is strongly opposed by the administration.