Space shuttle Endeavour launch hits some snags, rescheduled for May 2

Space Shuttle Launch Delayed

The launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, the penultimate flight of the famed NASA program, has been delayed until May 2 because of technical problems, the U.S. space agency said today.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said a faulty heater of the auxiliary power unit will be fixed by technicians before they give the go-signal to the space shuttle's final voyage.

President Barack Obama and Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was set to witness the launch. Rep. Giffords was shot on Jan. 8 by a deranged man in Tucson and is still recovering. Her husband Navy Captain Mark Kelly is commander of the space shuttle Endeavour.

Obama met the Giffords and the members of the flight crew at the Kennedy Space Center. The President came from Alabama  to assess the damage there brought by multiple tornadoes in recent days.

The Bush and Obama administration took steps to put an end to the space shuttle program because of budget constraints. The overall plan is to shift space exploration into the hands of private enterprises while NASA concentrates on rocket systems research and development.

The commercialization of space travel will pave the way for more tourists going to space who will be visiting the International Space Station. NASA has so far awarded contracts to four private firms to build commercial spaceships that will ferry non-astronauts soon.

Besides the space shuttle program, NASA's Constellation project designed for another trip to the moon was jettisoned by the Obama administration in favor of deep space projects and human missions to Mars within 30 years.

Thousands of people are expected to lose their jobs with the closure of the space shuttle program.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday April 30 2011, 5:46 AM EDT. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0