Space Shuttle Retirement May Be Postponed Under Spending Plan

The space shuttle, kicked into retirement by the government, may get one more launch after the two already scheduled for NASA's venerable senior citizen.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee authorized a three-year spending plan for NASA on Thursday that goes along with President Obama's call to ditch a proposed return to the Moon, but postpones the mothballing of the big space plane, also sought by the White House. Reuters said the bipartisan compromise was acceptable to the Obama administration, suggesting the bill has a good chance of passing the full Senate.

The $1 billion shuttle flight to the International Space Station would launch next summer or fall, following the planned shuttle missions later this year and in early 2011 that would have been the final flights for the orbiter. "This is a milestone in the realignment of the space program for the 21st century," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told the news service. "It preserves the most important parts of the president's plan."

The eventual grounding the shuttle not only marks the end of an era for the space program, it threatens thousands of jobs in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Houston and other NASA centers.