Space Shuttle Launch Is Postponed a Week
NASA officials pushed back next month’s launch of Discovery by a week, to May 22, saying more time was needed to complete testing and engineering work for the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003.
“I’m very confident that the team has their arms around this, and we know exactly what we have to do to get to the May 22 timeframe,” shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said at Cape Canaveral, referring to the remaining engineering analysis and paperwork.
NASA had been hoping to send Discovery on a 12-day delivery and repair mission to the International Space Station on May 15.
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