by Playfuls Staff |
21st August 2006
Construction on the International Space Station is scheduled to begin again after a long safety delay, The New York Times reported. Construction of the station has been on hold since NASA's space shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia disaster in February 2003. [more]
The shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off Aug. 27 from the Kennedy Space Center. The Times said Atlantis will carry a bus-sized segment of the station's backbone, including a set of solar-power arrays.
The Times said the station, which still floats half-built above Earth, is far from reaching its intended goal of becoming a world-class research facility. To reach that goal, some of the most difficult shuttle missions will need to be carried out, starting with the Atlantis.
"The flights ahead will be the most complex and challenging we've ever carried out for construction of the International Space Station in orbit," said Michael Suffredini, the station program manager at NASA.
© 2006 UPI
