Space Shuttle Final Flight Programmed: May 31 2010

NASA has put a final date on the shuttle program: May 31 2010. That day, the shuttle will launch for the last time, putting an end to 29 years of amazing missions, two of them with tragic endings. The final will be STS-133, in which Endeavour "will carry critical spare components that will be placed on the outside of the station," including new communication antennas, a gas tank, spare parts for giant space robot Dextre, and the coolest of them all: "micrometeoroid debris shields." I don't know about you, but I hope these involve invisible fields or laser micro-turrets or some kind of plasma generator. They also released details for the remaining flights of Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis: More »