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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Discovery's final flight scheduled for Thursday

Received this info from Matt:

Discovery's final flight scheduled for Thursday



Weather and conditions permitting, space shuttle Discovery will lift off Thursday on its final flight, NASA announced Friday.

The six-member crew will deliver a storage module, a science rig and spare parts to the international space station during its 11-day mission.

Originally scheduled for November, Discovery's launch was delayed because of repairs to the external tank's support beams.

NASA, which is winding down the shuttle program, announced the February 24 launch a few weeks ago, but confirmed it after a meeting briefing Friday. This will be Discovery's 39th voyage.

The launch is scheduled for 4:50 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Astronaut Steve Bowen was assigned to take the place of Tim Kopra, who was injured in a bicycle accident, NASA said.

The last scheduled launch of space shuttle Endeavour is currently on for April 19 and shuttle Atlantis is tentatively scheduled to launch during the summer.



Terri, Events Coordinator
Email: Events@PASAz.org
Phoenix Astronomical Society