Troubles Set Back Shuttle Schedule

NASA was forced to rearrange its entire shuttle flight schedule because of trouble with an X-ray telescope and Russia’s inability to get a crucial piece of the international space station into orbit. That will mean five shuttle flights in 1999 instead of six. That’s fewer than the seven or eight per year desired by NASA. That also will mean a gap of nearly six months between shuttle launches. The next mission is now targeted for May. That’s the longest gap since the 2 1/2-year hiatus following the 1986 Challenger disaster.