The U.S. space agency announced on Tuesday, June 22, 2010, that it would like to delay the last two space shuttle missions so the last one lifts off in February 2011, rather than in November 2010.





The preliminary plan by NASA is to delay the STS-133 mission from a September 16, 2010 liftoff to a launch on October 29, 2010.



The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be another mission to the International Space Station. It will deliver and attach the PMM (pressurized multipurpose module) Leonardo and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier.



The crew of STS-133 consists of commander Steven Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe, and mission specialists Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt, Alvin Drew, and Timothy Kopra.



According to the June 22, 2010 SpaceflightNow.com article NASA begins review of shuttle launch date changes, 'Assuming an Oct. 29 target date, Discovery would blast off at 5:44 p.m. and dock with the station the afternoon of Oct. 31. Two spacewalks would be carried out Nov. 2 and 4. Discovery would undock the morning of Nov. 7 and land back at the Kennedy Space Center the afternoon of Nov. 9.'



NASA then wants to delay the November 2010 flight of STS-134 to February 28, 2010. The flight of the space shuttle Atlantis, another mission to the ISS, will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and another ExPRESS Logistics Carrier.



According to SpaceflightNow.com, 'Endeavour, commanded by Mark Kelly, would blast off around 5:31 p.m. on Feb. 28 to deliver critical supplies and a $1.5 billion physics experiment to the space station. Joining Kelly for mission STS-134 will be pilot Gregory Johnson, Hubble veteran Andrew Feustel, European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori and station veterans Gregory Chamitoff and Mike Fincke.'



Page two continues.





The proposed plan'”which is expected to be reviewed over the next week, with an approval or denial expected on July 1, 2010'”would allow ground crews extra time to 'optimize payloads bound for the International Space Station and to avoid launch conflicts with other flights to the lab complex.' [SpaceflightNow.com]NASA is also hoping to add one more flight of the space shuttle fleet to its manifest. The U.S. space agency hopes to give the space shuttle Atlantis one additional trip to space sometime in June 2011.Thus, these delays would help spread out the remaining two flights, and give more time to organize (and approve) a third yet-to-be-approved flight.With the announcement made by former congressman and astronaut John Glenn urging the un-retirement of the space shuttle fleet, it is conceivable that NASA also wants to delay as long as possible the official retirement of the shuttles to give more time for Congress and the President to decide on the future of NASA's manned space program.For additional information on Mr. Glenn's announcement, please read the iTWire article ' John Glenn talks U.S. space program: Keep the Shuttles .'Glenn states, 'We have a vehicle here, why throw it away? It's working well.'Page three concludes.





It is to NASA's benefit, it would seem, to keep the shuttles operational until another manned vehicle is developed in either the private or public sectors. Right now, the U.S. manned space program is temporarily halted (like, 2, 3, or maybe even 7 or 8 years) with the retirement of the space shuttle fleet.Another manned space program would be years away as private ventures attempt to develop manned spaceflight capabilities for the first time and the public sector (members of Congress and the president) can't seem to agree what to do next.The SpaceflightNow.com article concludes with this statement concerning the addition of a third mission to NASA's manifest: 'But additional funding would be required and it's not yet clear whether NASA has the necessary political support.'