When the last shuttle mission returned I got a little wistful thinking Olivia won't be old enough to appreciate them before the last mission is over. Now it looks like, at the rate they seem to be launching them now, she'll be 17 before the last one goes:
As NASA continues to assess the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the future of the shuttle program, at least one official is warning it could take up to a year before the next flight takes off.The space agency grounded future shuttle flights after a fuel tank insulation problem was found during Discovery's mission a month ago. The pre-Katrina hope was for a new shuttle flight in March 2006, but after NASA’s Michoud facility in New Orleans was hit during the hurricane, analysts expected that mission to slip into May. That now may turn out to be overly optimistic — and not just because of the hurricane damage.
The article does, eventually (gotta have a little hysteria to keep your attention, donchaknow), get around to mentioning even more launch delays are just a preliminary idea, and not official by any means. Still, it would definitely seem they are taking their time with this thing.