09 July 2008

Space shuttle schedule

ZUI this NASA press release dated 7 July:
Following a detailed, integrated assessment, NASA selected target launch dates for the remaining eight space shuttle missions on the current manifest in 2009 and 2010. The manifest includes one flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, seven assembly flights to the International Space Station, and two station contingency flights, planned to be completed before the end of fiscal year 2010. The agency previously selected Oct. 8 and Nov. 10 as launch dates for Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service Hubble and Endeavour's STS-126 / ULF-2 mission to supply the space station and service both Solar Alpha Rotary Joints on the port and starboard end of its truss backbone that supports equipment and solar arrays.

The approved target dates are subject to change based on processing and other launch vehicle schedules. They reflect the agency's commitment to complete assembly of the station and to retire the shuttle fleet as transition continues to the new launch vehicles, including Ares and Orion.
The projected launch dates (including those mentioned above) are:
8 Oct 08 - Atlantis (STS-125)
10 Nov 08 - Endeavour (STS-126)
12 Feb 09 - Discovery (STS-119)
15 May 09 - Endeavour (STS-127)
30 Jul 09 - Atlantis (STS-128)
15 Oct 09 - Discovery (STS-129)
10 Dec 09 - Endeavour (STS-130)
11 Feb 10 - Atlantis (STS-131)
8 Apr 10 - Discovery (STS-132)
31 May 10 - Endeavour (STS-133)

Crews have been named for the first four space flights:
STS-125: Commander Scott Altman, pilot Gregory Johnson and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.
STS-126: Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Stephen Bowen, Robert Kimbrough, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Donald Pettit. (Joan Higginbotham was also assigned as mission specialist, but retired in Nov 07; she was replaced by Pettit.)
STS-119: Commander Lee Archambault, pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists John Phillips, Steven Swanson, Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold and Koichi Wakata (JAXA).
STS-127: Commander Mark Polansky, pilot Douglas Hurley and mission specialists Christopher Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn, David Wolf, Timothy Kopra and Julie Payette (CSA).

Further details on the projected shuttle flights are available from the press release linked to above.

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