Final STS missions announced

aidan_walsh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7495302.stm

The US space agency (Nasa) has fixed the dates of its last shuttle flights.

The final orbiter to launch before the whole fleet goes into retirement will be Endeavour on 31 May, 2010.

It will be carrying critical spare parts for the International Space Station (ISS) including communications equipment and shielding panels.

By the time the shuttle fleet is stood down, Nasa hopes to have demonstrated the replacement technology with a test flight of its Ares launch vehicle.

The trial mission, called Ares I-X, will be unmanned and will check out the key components needed to loft the new Orion crew carrier which is expected eventually to take astronauts back to the Moon.

The dates of the remaining shuttle flights are provisional and could change. As has been the case throughout the orbiters' history, a technical hitch or unfavourable weather conditions can always push back a flight by several days.

Remaining missions in 2008

8 October - Atlantis: A mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

10 November - Endeavour: ISS re-supply, and servicing of rotary joints that allow the big solar arrays to track the Sun.

Missions in 2009

12 February - Discovery: Final pair of solar arrays to be installed on the starboard end of the station's backbone.

15 May - Endeavour: Delivery of third and final component of the Japanese Kibo Laboratory.

30 July - Atlantis: Largely a logistics mission but it will include spacewalks to install equipment on Europe's Columbus lab.

15 October - Discovery: The flight will take up two spare gyroscopes that are needed to maintain station stability.

10 December - Endeavour: Delivery of the final connecting node, Node 3, together with the European-built Cupola window.

Missions in 2010

11 February - Atlantis: Another logistics mission to make sure the station is fully stocked with supplies.

8 April - Discovery: The flight will see the installation of a Russian Mini Research Module to be attached at the rear of the ISS.

31 May - Endeavour: The last flight. The 15-day mission will be the 35th orbiter flight to the station.

ga2re2t

It'll be strange to see the end of the shuttle flights. We probably won't see a spaceship like that for at least another 30 years. I must look into going to a launch in the near future.

I found info on the last flight from Wikipedia. It'll be STS-133 and will deliver the final components of the ISS (??) and the 3rd and 4th EXPRESS Logistics Carrier. They'll probably also leave the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) at the station. It's normally kept in the shuttle's cargo bay.

There is a good chance that there will be another shuttle mission after STS-133, namely STS-134. This would be to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Funding has apparently been given by US congress. Discovery is the most likely orbiter to be used.

NASA will also have to prepare a shuttle mission to back-up STS-133 or STS-134, in case either of those missions get into trouble.

lord lucan

has anyone here ever been over for a shuttle launch? i'm heading over in november to see endeavour (STS-126) go up. gonna book a package with grey line that picks you up in orlando and brings you out to KSC and then on to the causeway viewing area and then back again after. anyone else done this before?

Captain Chaos

I saw on New Scientist during the week that NASA are planning to extend the life of the Shuttles to 2015 seeing as there are a good few problems with it's replacement the Orion. Also the fact that once the Shuttle is grounded NASA have to depend on the Russian Space Agency and seeing as the political situation between the two is not great and the possibility of a new Cold War, the Shuttle may very well be kept going until 2020.