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NASA has done solid swell toward the programmed retirementof the 3 aging space shuttles this September, but will approaching not completethe fleets stream moody inform until Feb 2011, a new inform hasfound.
The 32page examination was expelled by NASAs Office of the InspectorGeneral, the agencys monetary watchdog, on Thursday � one day prior to tip spaceshuttle officials programmed to encounter at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida todiscuss plans for the subsequent convey mission, that is slated to explosion off onApril 5.
"Based on calculations by the Office of InspectorGeneral, chronological moody rates, and inner NASA evaluations, NASA is notlikely to encounter the Sep 2010 timetable, and it will majority approaching take untilthe second entertain of FY 2011 to finish the last of the programmed Space Shuttleflights," the inform stated. Feb 2011, it went on, is a improved estimatefor the last flight.
NASA now plans to fly 4 finalshuttle missions prior to mothballing the 3 space shuttles � Discovery,Atlantis and Endeavour.
In further to Discoverys Apr mission, the shuttlesare slated to launch on May eighteen (Atlantis), Jul twenty-nine (Endeavour) and Sept. sixteen (Discovery).All 4 missions, as well as a fifth moody that launched progressing this year inFebruary aboard Endeavour, are firm for the International Space Station todeliver critical supplies, scholarship equipment, gangling tools or new modules.
NASA officials have pronounced regularly that, exclusive majorunexpected delays, the group should be means to fly the superfluous shuttlemissions in 2010. In fact, U.S. President Barack Obama enclosed $600 million inNASAs 2011 mercantile year bill ask to account convey operations throughDecember 2010, in box of those additional months are needed.
"Given the opening of the space convey inrecent missions and the industry of the convey workforce, NASA has highconfidence that, exclusive any variable technical, weather, or cargo deliveryissues, the perceptible can be safely finished by Dec 2010," officials with NASA"sspace operations multiplication in assign of convey flights told in anemail.
But NASA should still find a little declaration that appropriation willbe accessible for convey flights should they trip in to early 2011, the auditsaid.
NASA spends about $200 million a month on the spaceshuttle module and will approaching outlay about $54 million in overtime compensate in aneffort to keep stay on track, the new inform stated. However, given that isstill cheaper than the cost of rescheduling the complete convey moody manifestto strictly aim a Dec 2010 retirement, NASAs Inspector Generaloffice had no recommendations that the space group shift the stream flightschedule.
NASA does, however, need to finalize plans to understanding withthe postshuttle epoch passing from one to an additional and retirement, the inform said. By preparingin advance, the space group will be means to conduct the estimated $460 millionexpected to be compulsory to hoop convey passing from one to an additional and retirement, it added.
The new inform comes on the heels of an additional audit, submittedTuesday, that criticized NASA for overspendingon conferences in 2009. The convey inform additionally comes at a time when NASA"sshuttle and human spaceflight module are in flux.
NASA motionless to retire the space convey swift in thewake of the comfortless loss of the convey Columbia and the sevenastronaut organisation in2003. But the group additionally primarily programmed to set up new booster and rocketsin sequence to say a governmentderived U.S. human spaceflight capability.
The space convey swift has been drifting given Apr 1981.Its early retirement this year will finish scarcely thirty years of convey flight. Several lawmakers are pulling to extendthe convey module to fill in an approaching yearslong opening in between theshuttle eras finish and the accessibility new American booster and rocketscapable of rising astronauts in to space.
In February, President Obama systematic the termination ofNASAs Constellation module overseeing the growth of the new Orion spacecraftand Ares rockets to reinstate the convey fleet.
Instead, the boss due NASA welcome commercialspacecraft instead, and set in reserve $6 billion over the subsequent five years in theagencys bill ask to account those new in isolation space endeavors. That wouldfree NASA to concentration on some-more confidant space initiatives, such as manned missions tothe moon, asteroids and Mars, supporters have said.
President Obama is approaching hold a space limit inFlorida on Apr fifteen to plead some-more sum about his new space plan. If allgoes according to plan, that limit will start during the convey Discoverys missionto broach new scholarship gear, reserve and gangling tools to the InternationalSpace Station.
Top convey module engineers and managers will spendFriday deliberating Discoverys willingness for that programmed 13day spaceflight.They are approaching to outlay at slightest a little time reviewing the tests of heliumpressurization lines in piece of the shuttles greeting carry out system.
Earlier this month, engineers found what appeared to be aleakor stranded valve in the helium lines that pressurize the aftmountedthrusters on Discoverys right back engine pod. Since then, they achieved moretests of alternative hardware compared with the system, and founded it in goodworking order.
Shuttle managers will examination all those tests Friday anddecided if Discovery is in truth ready for launch. If so, the convey would becleared for a programmed launch on Apr 5.
Liftoff is slated for 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT) on EasterMonday.
Images Shuttle Discoverys Midnight Launch Final Countdown: A Guide to NASAs Last Space Shuttle Missions Video Show Riding the Space Shuttle| _______________________ |
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