This week, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) presented its list of activities for the next two years. A total of no less than ten shuttle missions will be carried out before September 30, 2010, when the fleet is scheduled for retirement.

May 31, 2010 was set to be the date for the final mission; the four month interval before the deadline was planned in order to allow scientists to reschedule flights if certain missions are delayed because of bad weather.

In 2010, through the last three missions to the International Space Station (ISS), several large spare parts will be carried on site on February 11, April 8 and May 31.

For 2009, five missions will be involved in space station assembly operations: Discovery will take off on February 12, Endeavour on May 16, Atlantis on July 30, Discovery is to go back on October 15 and on December 10, Endeavour will reach the ISS for the seond time in one year.

For the remaining five and a half months of 2008, two more missions are being prepared by NASA people: Atlantis is to take off on October 8; it is to reach the Hubble Space Telescope for a series of repairs and upgrading operations. The second is planned for November 10, when Endeavour will blast off for re-supplying the ISS.

Stay tuned, a lot of very interesting information will soon be finding its way to you.