NASA: Shuttle mission to space station in December

Published: Jan 30, 2005
Source: www.cnn.com



(SPACE.com) -- NASA confirmed to its international space station partners on Wednesday that it plans to return the U.S. space shuttle to flight this year with test launches in the late spring and late summer and to resume assembly of the orbital complex starting with a shuttle flight in December.

Meeting in Montreal, the heads of the five space agencies building the station: United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, said they were confident the station's assembly would be completed by the end of the decade despite the more than two-year shutdown of shuttle activity due to since the February 1, 2003, Columbia accident.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said modifying the remaining shuttle fleet has already cost NASA about $1.5 billion.continue..