Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
HOUSTON - The first shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy has been pushed back by NASA because hurricanes postponed work on new safety measures making a spring 2005 launch "no longer achievable."
March or April had been the tentative date selected by NASA's spaceflight council, which announced the delay Friday.
The council, in Houston to discuss the Oct. 14 launch of the next international space station crew, asked shuttle program officials to analyze whether a May date is more feasible, and to report back their findings later this month, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said.
NASA's shuttle fleet has been grounded since Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The first possible launch window beyond March or April opens on May 14, Beutel said. Another presents itself in July with a third window in September.
The hurricanes cost three weeks of shuttle-processing time, said James Kennedy, director of Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
In late August and early September, rain and high winds accompanying Charley and Frances caused widespread damage to NASA's launch site. Hurricane Jeanne later blew off 30 exterior panels from the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building.
The threat of Hurricane Ivan temporarily halted work on Discovery's redesigned external fuel tank at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s assembly plant in New Orleans, Beutel said.
The agency's three space shuttles themselves made it safely through the storms.