The U.S. Space agency said it plans to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on May 11, one day earlier that previously scheduled, NASA officials said on Thursday in Houston. 

 

NASA wants to launch the final space shuttle mission aiming to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. It wants to do it a day ahead of schedule in order to avoid a potential scheduled conflict at the launching site.

 

The mission launch will most likely get the approval from space agency engineers next week. After the approval, the space shuttle will lift off on May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center. The initial launch date was scheduled for last October, but plans were delayed due to a failure of a computer aboard the Hubble. Since then, the Hubble has been using a backup computer to manage its data and store it. Fixing the problem is a very important issue in the mission. 

 

The Space Hubble was launched on Earth's orbit in 1990 and since then has provided scientists with very important scientific data that changed the perspective on many things such as the origin and evolution of the universe. The Hubble's high tech cameras help it take very sharp images from its position, 300 miles above the Earth.  

 

Moving the launch date earlier gives the space agency three possible launch dates. However, the decision will be taken next week and Leroy Cain, the deputy manager of the shuttle program, said they are doing everything they can to launch the space shuttle on May 11. "We're all very excited to see the telescope again. We haven't seen it in seven years," said Tony Ceccacci, the space agency's lead flight director.