A Delayed Endeavour

The launch of the next-to-last space shuttle mission and last flight of the Endeavour, commanded by Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's husband, has been delayed by technical issues until at least May 8th.

NASA on Sunday delayed the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour until May 8 at the earliest, after technical problems uncovered last week proved more complex than originally thought.


Electrical failures in the power supply to a fuel-line heating unit caused engineers to scrub the what would have been the second-to-last shuttle flight ever just hours before liftoff on Friday.

A plan to try the launch again on Monday was scratched once engineers realized the problem could take more time to fix.

"We still have a lot of work and a lot of offroads that could take us one way or another," Mike Moses, NASA launch integration manager, told reporters on Sunday.

The launch will be "not any earlier than the 8th," and possibly even later, he said.

"Just take that as a target for when we are going to start talking again about another launch date."

Endeavour is poised to carry a potent, multibillion dollar tool for searching the universe in the penultimate flight for NASA's 30-year program.

After Endeavour returns from its 14-day mission and Atlantis launches for a final time in June, the iconic space shuttle program will close for good.

I can understand the extra layer of caution at this point.   It's not like we have a bunch of extra space shuttles sitting around, ready to go...and of course all effort is being made to ensure nothing goes wrong.  I'm hoping the launch will happen soon and happen safely...and that Gabby Giffords gets to watch her husband touch the sky one last time.