Commander Mark Kelly leads a U.S., European Crew of Six. Credit: NASA

NASA’s space shuttle program has received a brief reprieve from retirement.
The last of three missions still remaining had been scheduled for a Sept. 16 launching aboard the shuttle Discovery.
On Monday, shuttle managers moved the planned July 29 launching of the shuttle Endeavour with the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to mid-November.
The final November launch date, which has yet to be selected, will allow an international science team to change a critical magnet on the AMS, which will rest on the outside of the International Space Station to observe cosmic rays. The findings may help astronomers unravel the origins of dark energy and other mysteries about the birth of the universe.
Scientists elected to change to a longer lasting magnet after NASA and its international partners decided to extend space station operations from 2016 to at least 2020. 
Meanwhile, shuttle Atlantis remains scheduled to lift off May 14 on a 12-day mission to the space station with a new Russian science and docking module as well as new power storage batteries for the outpost’s oldest solar power module.