NASA delays next shuttle launch until March

NASA delays next shuttle launch until March
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer,
Friday, August 19, 2005

NASA is delaying the next shuttle launch until some time in March, six months later than originally hoped.

The agency needs more time to figure out how to prevent a repeat of potentially dangerous technical problems that plagued the recent Discovery flight, NASA chief Michael Griffin explained at a press conference Thursday in Washington. Those problems included potentially hazardous foam that fell off the shuttle's external tank during launch.

Previously, NASA officials had hoped to launch another shuttle, Atlantis, in September. Thursday's announcement scotches that plan.

If the next shuttle does go up in March, NASA will have launched only a single shuttle during a three-year period -- the shuttle Discovery that flew from July 26 to Aug. 9 of this year.

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