Next Shuttle Launch Pushed Back One Week
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's next space shuttle launch has been delayed until May 31, nearly a week late because of extra time needed to get the fuel tank to Florida.
Discovery had been scheduled to blast off May 25, but the external fuel tank for the space station mission got held up by bad weather.
The tank finally arrived at Kennedy Space Center from its assembly plant in New Orleans last week.
NASA also wanted to avoid having the launch team work through the Memorial Day weekend.
Discovery will ferry Japan's massive Kibo lab to the international space station. The first section of the lab went up on the last shuttle flight, which ended last Wednesday.
