NASA delays Space Shuttle launch to next year

NASA delays Space Shuttle launch to next year

It is almost confirmed now that the US Space Agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) will not be able to get another Space Shuttle mission to undergo this year. The organization announced after the glitches it suffered in the Discovery’s mission to ISS (International Space Station) that no Space Shuttle would go to space until they can fix the problems with debris falling down during the launch process.

The latest news in is that the space agency has said that there are little chances of another Space Shuttle mission before the month of March next year. They had earlier planned to launch the Atlantis into the space on a mission to the International Space Station next month. Discovery in the end changed a lot of things at the American space agency.

The fixes NASA would require to make to get the Space Shuttle ready for launch with no debris problem would not be complete in the year. Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations spoke to the media and said that NASA is unlikely to see a launch before March 4. They are planning to use Discovery again instead of Atlantis for another quick mission to ISS.

Gerstenmaier said: “It looks like we’re going to have to do some repair on the tanks. That will kind of push us in the time frame after the first of the year into 2006. The other thing is this also gives us the opportunity to switch launch vehicles.”