NASA Schedules July 13 for Next Shuttle Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA set a launch date of July 13 for the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster 2 1/2 years ago, saying Thursday that the agency’s best minds have made the spacecraft as safe as possible.

“We are being as smart about this as we know how to be, but we are up against the limits of our human knowledge,” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in pronouncing space shuttle Discovery ready for liftoff. “If someone wants more, they’re going to have to find smarter humans.”

The space agency set the date after more than two years of frustrating delays, setbacks and modifications to the shuttle, and a two-day, high-level review of whether Discovery is ready.