NASA is aiming to launch the final space shuttle mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope a day earlier than planned to avoid a potential schedule conflict at the Florida launch site, Reuters cited officials as saying today. If approved by U.S. space agency managers next week, the shuttle Atlantis would lift off on May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT (1801 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center. "I feel fairly confident that we can make a May 11 launch date," Leroy Cain, the deputy space shuttle program manager, told reporters. The shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts were due to launch last October but the failure of a computer aboard Hubble prompted a delay. The telescope has been using a backup computer to format its science data, and replacement of the failed computer is a key goal of the mission. Scientists say Hubble, launched in 1990, is an important source of scientific data that has changed their understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe and delivered unprecedented pictures of distant galaxies and celestial phenomena. Because it orbits about 300 miles (485 km) above Earth, outside the planet's atmosphere, its cameras can take extremely sharp images. The earlier launch date would give NASA three days to try to get Atlantis off the ground before having to postpone until May 22 to allow a previously scheduled U.S. military operation at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to proceed.
