BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- NASA officials said
Thursday the first space shuttle launch of 2007, a mission to continue the
construction of the international space station, has been pushed forward one
day.
The space shuttle Atlantis and its six
astronauts are now scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 6:43
a.m. EST on March 15. Final approval of that date will be made at a meeting of
NASA managers at the end of February.
"Everybody agrees that it was something that was
doable if all other processing activities go smoothly," said NASA spokesman Kyle
Herring in Houston.
The space shuttle mission is scheduled to last 11
days, although NASA is considering extending it to as many as 13 days to give
the astronauts more time for their tasks.
The astronauts will deliver another solar array and
truss segment to the space station, continuing an ambitious schedule to complete
construction by 2010, when the shuttle program is to end.
The launch window likely would close around March 25
so that Atlantis' visit to the space station doesn't interfere with the planned
launch of a Russian Soyuz vehicle carrying new crew members to the space
station. The Russians had planned to launch the Soyuz on April 9 but may bump up
the lift-off by two days.
When asked about the prospect of a launch on the Ides
of March, the fateful day Julius Caesar was assassinated, Herring said,
"Superstitious is not in our vocabulary."
(Agencies)
