The last flight of the shuttle will take in 2011.

The delay stems from the fact that the experts of the American Space Agency (NASA) did not have time to prepare in time for flight transport module Leonardo, which will take into space shuttle «Discovery». The transport module is used to send to the ISS various loads, but this time «Leonardo» will not return to Earth — his dock to the station. To protect the module from the bombardment by small asteroids, technology strengthens the outer layer of «Leonardo», and these works, they do not have time to finish in time.

NASA is not the first time brings the date of the last shuttle flight. It was planned that he will be held in September 2010, and will go into orbit shuttle «Discovery». The last but one station was supposed to fly «Endeavour», but NASA decided to replace one component of the alpha magnetic spectrometer AMS-02, which Endeavour will deliver to orbit. Accordingly, scheduled for July 29th shuttle flight was canceled and rescheduled for November 2010.

After the shuttle mission, American astronauts will be exposed to the ISS on Russian spacecraft Soyuz. Since 2004, NASA has been developing new spacecraft Orion and the booster rocket Ares, but in February 2010, the White House decided to abandon them and entrust the creation of a new space transportation to private companies. More information about the new U.S. strategy to utilize the space available here.