STS-134 launch has been shifted again to a new “no earlier than” date: May 16th at 8:56 a.m. EDT. The window will be open till May 20th; then in order to avoid overlaps with undocking Russian Soyuz TMA-20, another launch opportunity will follow from May 22 to May 26. At JSC, STS-134 crew is ready to come back at KSC, where engineers and technicians are working hard to solve all issues at the orbiter’s Auxiliary Power Unit that caused the

After NASA technicians found the cause of Auxiliary Power Unit thermal issue that scrubbed the 29 April launch and decided to remove and replace an entire avionics box, STS-134 launch has been delayed to not earlier than Sunday, May 8th at 12:09 p.m. EDT: AMS-02 has to wait at least one week to begin its travel to the ISS. In the meanwhile at Houston people from the Collaboration, waiting to start their scheduled 24 hours control shifts are working on

The STS-134 launch delay due to a heater issue with the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and the at least 72 hours scrub won’t have any consequence on AMS-02 scheduled operations. The experiment will remain switched off till the new launch and AMS-02 team shifts at Houston for the control activities will be rearranged. A Sunday NASA technical meeting is foreseen in order to decide if Monday, May 2nd at 2:33 p.m. EDT would be a suitable date for the launch.

Tomorrow AMS-02 will start its life into the space onboard the Shuttle Endeavour: listen to Prof. Roberto Battiston explaining what will happen after the launch.