Shuttle Retirement Date Starts To Move To The Right

Senate budget panel: Shuttle can fly another year
“A $2.5 billion spending provision that would allow NASA to fly the space shuttle well beyond its scheduled retirement next year cleared a major legislative hurdle today, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. The provision, requested by Nelson, was included in the broader five-year spending plan that passed the Senate Budget Committee. The shuttle is scheduled to be retired in the fall of next year, and President Barack Obama’s recently submitted budget plan provides only enough money for nine flights by the end of 2010. But Nelson has argued there should be no hard-and-fast deadline for launching those flights or mothballing the shuttle; and, that finishing all the shuttle’s work safely should come first.”