2010 Will Mark the End of the NASA Space Shuttle Program: Here’s to a Good NASA Year

The space shuttle fleet is scheduled for retirement in 2010, unless they extend the program a little longer so that there isn’t as much downtime between the Discovery’s final flight and the first operational flight of the Orion space vehicle. 

Here is the published schedule for the final five flights:

February 7—Space Shuttle Endeavour will “…deliver the final connecting node, Tranquility Node 3, and the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center that provides a 360-degree view around the International Space Station.”

March 18—Space Shuttle Discovery will “…carry a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks that will be transferred to laboratories of the International Space Station.”

May 14—Space Shuttle Atlantis will “…will carry an integrated cargo carrier to deliver maintenance and assembly hardware, including spare parts for space station systems. In addition, the second in a series of new pressurized components for Russia, a Mini Research Module, will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the Zarya module.”  This mission will be the final flight of the Atlantis.

July 29—Space Shuttle Endeavour will “…deliver an EXPRESS Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) and an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station.”  This mission will be the last one for the Endeavour.

September 16th—Space Shuttle Discovery will “…deliver the Express Logistics Carrier 4 (ELC4), a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MLPM) and critical spare components to the International Space Station.”  This is the final scheduled mission for the space shuttle program. 

I hope all of these missions go off without a hitch.  I think it’s safe to say that if they lose another shuttle prior to the scheduled retirement of the fleet, they’ll ground the shuttles permanently and send the hardware up to the ISS by other means.

Two of the shuttles are being offered up as museum pieces; one museum has put in a request for the Endeavour that NASA is considering.

I hope everything goes off without a hitch.