STS-124 Targeted For Nighttime Liftoff

With the shuttle Atlantis back home safe, and Endeavour ready at the launch pad for launch early month, on Wednesday NASA announced it is now targeting May 25 at 1926 EDT for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- over one month later than originally planned.

As ANN reported, NASA announced last week it had rescheduled the last three shuttle missions for 2008, and it would hold off determining dates for the next two launches until Atlantis had returned.

Discovery's flight was originally targeted for April 24. However, fuel sensor system repair work on STS-122 and STS-123 delayed final preparations of Discovery's external fuel tank, and the tank is not expected to arrive at Kennedy until early March.

Furthermore, the shuttle can't launch to the International Space Station between May 7 and 25 because the angle of the sun with respect to the plane of the station's orbit is too high to generate sufficient solar power for the mission.

The space agency stressed the delay to Discovery's launch date will not affect the remainder of the shuttle manifest, which is pushing against a hard September 30, 2010 retirement deadline.

Shuttle and station program officials will continue to evaluate Discovery's liftoff date and are protecting the option to launch the shuttle a few days earlier.

During the mission to the space station, the shuttle and its seven-member crew will deliver the pressurized module and the robotic arm of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts124