The U.S.' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Monday set an approximate date for the final space shuttle mission for May 31, 2010. The date set comes four months before the shuttle fleet retires. NASA has 10 missions remaining for the shuttle fleet, which U.S. President George W. Bush ordered to retire by September 30, 2010. The remaining schedule includes five flights in 2008, five in 2009 and three in 2010. Some members of the U.S. Congress want to add at least one more mission, to carry the $1.6 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the space station. The mission was one of about a dozen canceled after space shuttle Columbia broke apart upon re-entry in 2003. Once the shuttles retire, work will focus on the Ares rocket and Orion capsule that will be used to return astronauts to the moon.
