NASA Shuttle Unlikely to Launch Before May

NASA has announced that the next shuttle mission is unlikely to launch until early May. Atlantis was scheduled to make a trip to the International Space Station back in mid March, but it was unable to launch safely at that time. The shuttle's fuel tanks had been damaged by a hail storm on February 26th that passed over Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle was on the launch pad in preparation for the launch when the storm hit. The damage appears to be to the insulation on Atlantis' fuel tank. To repair the shuttle, technicians will need to spray foam to the top of the fuel tank.

NASA has decided to be very cautions when any possible damage is discovered to the shuttle after the tragedy the entire country witnessed in 2003 with the shuttle Columbia. The accident that claimed the lives of all the astronauts on the shuttle appeared to have been caused by foam falling off of the fuel tank and damaging the wing of Columbia. The damage to the wing was to a heat panel. The damaged heat panel allowed super heated gases to penetrate the secure surface of the shuttle, and has been blamed for the explosion which resulted in the death of seven astronauts.

As of this time, the U.S. Shuttle program is scheduled to be retired in 2010. Before then NASA has a commitment to make at least thirteen trips to the space station to complete the work NASA has planned. The space station was a project developed by sixteen countries. The most recent trip was scheduled to deliver a third set of solar arrays to the space station. Future scheduled uses of the space shuttle include a trip to service he Hubble Space Telescope. NASA officials do not believe the delay that has been experienced will result in any difficulties with meeting the scheduling needs to complete these missions.