Reuters has reported in the last hour that NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantis is to launch on 7 February and not 24 January
I can only find this NASASpaceflight.com report identifying the 7th and there is nothing on NASA’s website
It is an interesting choice of date becauswe it is the same day as Energia’s Progress M-63 was supposed to go up. My source expected maybe a 24h advance from the Russians but NASA must have done a good job of persuading the Russians so the two-days grace between launches normally preferred is achieved. NASASpaceflght.com reports that the Russians will try for the 5th
I had also heard that the launch window time on the 24 January was about 0200h local time. So I’m rather glad of the slip to 7 Feb as I am expecting to be blogging live from Kennedy Space Center come Atlantis’ launch day
