Nasty weather delayed the delivery of the external fuel tank for the space shuttle Discovery a few weeks back. Since the tanks are delivered by barge from New Orleans to Cape Canaveral, severe storms forced the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility where the tanks are built to hold back delivery for nearly a week. The delay was not expected to push back the launch of Discovery early next month, but after NASA managers crunched the numbers, they realized that they would have to postpone the launch one week. The week delay put the launch on the Memorial Day weekend, so in order to give NASA's thousands of workers the weekend off in what is due to be a busy launch year, the launch was delayed to Saturday, May 31st.
Discovery will be launching on a construction mission to the International Space Station. It will carry aboard the second of three segments of Japan's huge Kibo Laboratory. The shuttle will be commanded by US astronaut Mark Kelly. In addition to the JAXA module, Discovery will also be carrying Greg Chamitoff to replace current ISS resident Garrett Reisman.
Nasty weather delayed the delivery of the external fuel tank for the space shuttle Discovery a few weeks back. Since the tanks are delivered by barge from New Orleans to Cape Canaveral, severe storms forced the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility where the tanks are built to hold back delivery for nearly a week. The delay was not expected to push back the launch of Discovery early next month, but after NASA managers crunched the numbers, they realized that they would have to postpone the launch one week. The week delay put the launch on the Memorial Day weekend, so in order to give NASA's thousands of workers the weekend off in what is due to be a busy launch year, the launch was delayed to Saturday, May 31st.
