With a visit to the Hubble Space Telescope off until next spring at the earliest, NASA has chosen Nov. 14 for its next space shuttle launch, a flight by Endeavour to the international space station, the Associated Press reported.
The Hubble repair mission had been planned for this month, but was postponed until next year because of problems with the orbiting telescope. Officials said Thursday the telescope is beaming back pictures again, but the spare part needed to completely resolve the issue won't be ready to fly before May.
As Hubble managers were announcing the setback, shuttle officials finalized plans to launch Endeavour with enough household items to increase the size of the space station crew from three to six next year, hopefully around May or June.