נאסא ספעיס שאטעל לעצטע רייזע נאך דרייסיג יאר

NASA is finishing its 30-year space shuttle program to concentrate on missions to asteroids and Mars, destinations favoured by the White House. Private companies will take over the job of hauling cargo and crews to the International Space Station, freeing NASA up to focus on points beyond. Thunderstorms threatened to delay NASA's last space shuttle launch scheduled for Friday, with lightning striking near the pad as astronauts descended on Cape Canaveral by the dozens on Thursday, the eve of the historic final shuttle flight. Despite a 70 percent "no-go" forecast, as shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said at the news conference on Thursday, senior managers said they would try for an on-time launch of shuttle Atlantis anyway.