NASA Advances Launch Date for Shuttle and Space Telescope

NASA, in a rare move, advanced the launch date Saturday for the shuttle Discovery and its prestigious payload, the $1.5-billion Hubble Space Telescope.

Discovery now is due to lift off April 10, two days earlier than originally planned.

“The shuttle team is ready to fly. Hubble is one of the most exciting payloads ever launched aboard the shuttle, and we’re looking forward to the mission,” said William Lenoir, associate administrator for space flight for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The space agency’s Flight Readiness Review Board decided to move up the mission after meeting for two days at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA said last week that technicians needed little of the contingency time built into Discovery’s prelaunch schedule.

Once deployed by Discovery’s astronauts, the Hubble will orbit 380 miles above Earth for 15 years. The telescope will be capable of looking seven times more deeply into space with greater clarity and detecting objects 50 times fainter than the best ground-based observatory.

Astronomers expect to use it to study stars and galaxies so distant that their light has been traveling toward Earth for 14 billion years.

NASA occasionally has shifted shuttle launch dates because of scheduling changes in the months prior to liftoff. But it is the first time liftoff has been accelerated during orbiter processing.

In February, Discovery’s launch date was changed from April 18 to April 12 after the lower right segment of the shuttle’s solid rocket booster was replaced more quickly than anticipated.

Technicians planned to test the telescope’s systems and scientific instruments today. They want to ensure remote communications with the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and other facilities.