Other Launches Also Are Juggled
Space Shuttle Atlantis will lift off at 2:01 p.m. ET May 11 from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, a day earlier than planned, NASA briefers announced.
Atlantis will repair the Hubble Space Telescope so it can last into the next decade, when the advanced James Webb Space Telescope is launched to provide a better view of the universe.
Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) worked for years to fund the Hubble mission.
Other changes in upcoming launches also are in train.
Space Shuttle Endeavour, which will be on standby at its present location at Pad 39B in case an emergency arises on Atlantis while it is at the Hubble, later will transfer to Pad 39A to prepare for its STS-127 Mission to the International Space Station, where it will install the Japanese Kibo laboratory exposed facility. Launch is set for 7:19 a.m. ET June 13.
Also, the GOES-O satellite will be launched by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV (Boeing design) rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Launch Pad 37-B, rising from the ground on May 20.
And the unmanned Lunar CRaterObserving and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V (Lockheed design) from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41 on a mission to the moon to search for critically needed frozen water.