spacetoday.net: STS-125 launch may move up a day

Posted: Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 1:50 PM ET (1750 GMT)

NASA is considering moving up the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis next month by a day to give managers more opportunities before yielding to a conflicting event. Atlantis is currently scheduled to lift off May 12 on STS-125, a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. However, NASA officials said Thursday that they are looking into the possibility of moving the launch up one day, to May 11. That would give managers more opportunities to launch the shuttle before May 14, when the shuttle must stand down because of a previously-planned launch at Cape Canaveral that has range priority. If the shuttle cannot launch by the 14th NASA would have to wait until May 22 before trying again. Preparations for the shuttle launch are going well, and managers said a wrench socket that was dropped during installation of the shuttle's payload earlier in the week will not require and repairs to the payload bay door, hit by the falling object.