By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The launch date for space shuttle Atlantis to service the Hubble Space Telescope has been postponed from October 10 to 14, NASA said in a statement.
The 11-day mission, originally scheduled for launch on August 28, was previously postponed until October 10-11 to complete work on an external fuel tank. This time NASA said the final preparations for the mission were hampered by hurricane Ike.
During the fourth and final servicing mission to Hubble, the shuttle’s seven-member crew will conduct five spacewalks and install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform component replacements to keep the telescope functioning until at least 2014.
With the delay of Atlantis’ launch, shuttle Endeavour’s supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), also will be moved from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16.
Hubble, orbiting 569 km (353 miles) above the Earth, is the first telescope designed to be visited in space by astronauts to perform repairs, replace parts, and update its technology with new components.
It is a large, space-based observatory which in its 18 years of operations has provided astronomers with deep and clear views of outer space, from our own solar system to remote galaxies.
Launched in 1990 and substantially upgraded through new instrumentation installed during four previous servicing missions with space shuttles, Hubble completed its 100,000th orbit of Earth on August 11.
NASA earlier said a new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will replace Hubble on a larger orbit in 2013.