Atlantis is next up, on track to launch May 14 on what is its last scheduled flight.
Since Atlantis will later be prepared to serve as the rescue shuttle for NASA’s final scheduled flight late this year, some have speculated that NASA might take advantage of the flight-ready hardware to add one more mission.
But Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon said that is not currently in the plans.
“If we have to go fly it the vehicle will be all configured and ready to go, but we’re not currently working on any plans to fly it as a flight except for (as) a rescue vehicle,” he said.
Adding a flight would have been easier if the agency’s original plan had held to fly out the remaining three missions by September.
Then, NASA could have taken advantage of $600 million in funding provided by Congress in case flights slipped later in 2010.
But because of a delay to payload flying on the program’s last scheduled flight, by Endeavour, NASA will be trying to fly that mission in late November or early December, the only available launch windows toward the end of this year. It’s not yet clear the payload — the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer — will be ready by then.
Shannon said NASA expects costs savings this year to allow it to continue flying through January or February of 2011. After that, the program would have to request more money.