SSEP has just been alerted to the possibility that if the federal government were to shut down next week, which may happen if the Congress cannot agree on the budget for the current fiscal year, the launch of STS-134 may be delayed from the current April 29 date. Though this is by no means certain – no-one seems to be sure at the moment what effect the shutdown would have on the activities of the different branches of the government – NanoRacks has just informed us that it is possible that if the government shuts down, the launch of STS-134 may slip day for day – that is, a two-day shutdown would result in a two-day slip, etc. We all hope that the shutdown will be averted altogether, and it may well be that there will be no launch slip even if the government were to shut down, but we wanted to alert you just so that you’re aware of this possibility.
You may want to follow the news on the status of the budget negotiations in Congress and the likelihood of the government shutdown, and hold off making or changing final travel plans until the federal budget situation is resolved or until you simply cannot wait any longer. We know this may be reversal on the advice given in the earlier blog post today, but unfortunately the complicated federal budget situation right now is making the lives of everyone involved with government programs a bit more complicated at the moment, and all we can do is adapt to new events as they occur.
The SSEP on-orbit research opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
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