Discovery shuttle launch moved to 2011

The final launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been postponed until February 2011.

The shuttle launch is now tentatively scheduled for around Feb. 3, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, told a news conference Friday.

Discovery was originally scheduled  to blast off in October but has been delayed several times. Most recently, its launch was postponed until Dec. 17, after cracks were found on two U-shaped aluminum brackets on the shuttle's external fuel tank.

John Shannon, NASA's space shuttle program manager, said he expected the source of the problem would be obvious, such as a flaw in the material, but that did not prove to be the case. Therefore, NASA wants to run some tests on a the tank and mock-ups of the brackets to see if it can replicate the failure and learn for sure what went wrong.

"It's unfortunate that we're not making the December launch window," Shannon said. "We want to make sure, though, that we do this exactly right."

The delay in Discovery's flight means the last launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, previously scheduled for February, will be delayed until April and a possible additional flight for the space shuttle Atlantis would take place in June.