NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis may still be in orbit, but the agency is already planning ahead with new launch dates for three missions set to lift off this fall.

Three of NASA’s six planned shuttle flights of 2008 have shifted to slightly later in the year due to the two-month delay that plagued Atlantis’ current STS-122 mission to deliver Europe’s Columbus lab and a new crewmember to the International Space Station (ISS). Here’s a rundown of the new launch targets:

Aug. 28 – STS-125 aboard Atlantis to fly the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (delayed from Aug. 7)

Oct. 16 - STS-126 aboard Endeavour to haul new equipment and supplies to the ISS (delayed from Sept. 18)

Dec. 4 – STS-119 aboard Discovery to deliver the final set of U.S. solar arrays to the ISS (finally, an official date!)

No official new launch dates have been set for NASA next two shuttle missions to fly after Atlantis. NASA officials said Thursday that any changes to those flights will be finalized once Atlantis lands back on Earth next week,

If you’re keeping track, those two missions are currently set to fly on the following dates:

March 11 – STS-123 aboard Endeavour to deliver Japan’s Experiment Logistics Module (a sort of float-in closet for space science) for the Kibo lab and Canada’s DEXTRE robotic arm addition to the ISS. The shuttle will roll out to its seaside launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday.

April 24 – STS-124 aboard Discovery to deliver to haul the massive Pressurized Module for Japan’s Kibo lab, the largest single laboratory to be attached to the ISS. It comes with its own robotic arm, too. Bonus!

The tricky part is that the European Space Agency plans to launch its first Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ship to the ISS on March 7 and Russia’s Federal Space Agency will be launching Soyuz rocket carrying the Expedition 17 crew to the space station on April 8. So it’s a busy time in space to be sure.

Meanwhile, Atlantis’ STS-122 crew is scheduled to land SOMEWHERE on Feb. 20. NASA announced plans to call up a backup landing site in California on landing in order to return the orbiter for sure on Wednesday and clear the way for the U.S. military to shoot down a dead spy satellite before it crashes into the Earth.

If NASA launches all six shuttle missions this year, or even if the agency launches four, it will mark the most to fly in a single year since the agency resumed flights in 2005 following the Columbia accident.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 5:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.