Shuttle Launch Date Decision Due in April
NASA mission managers will wait until early April to pick a new launch date for the space shuttle Atlantis pending additional repairs and checks of its hail-battered fuel tank, top agency officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. space agency is eyeing April 10 as the decision day on whether to press ahead with a possible mid-May launch for Atlantis or swap its damaged fuel tank with a new one, which would push the planned space shot to June.
“Our ultimate goal is to get the best tank that we can get ready to go fly,” William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, told reporters in a Wednesday teleconference. “It looks like by about April 10 or so, we should have enough information.” Read more
