We all know that NASA has had their issues with weather delaying some of their most recent STS missions, not to mention all kinds of other delays in the past as well... but this next potential delay is not due to any weather or technical issues... but rather good old scheduling issues. People often wonder why the shuttle can't just be launched at any old time, and a lot of that has to do with the finial destination of the shuttle on that particular mission as well as the rotation of the Earth and the position of its target. The capabilities of how far the shuttle can travel are actually kind of limited, and in order to make it home again, you have to make sure that you're aiming is just right. So, consequently there are better times than others of when to launch... and trust me, those windows are hardly ever when anyone would prefer to have them. In the case of the upcoming STS 129 though, there are a number of things that could really mess this one up. Say, more than one Russian mission, a couple of satellite launches, as well as some meteor showers... Yeah. Right now there are two windows of opportunity to get 129 up in the air by the end of this year. November 12-20th and December 6-13th. Seems like plenty of time... But with the first window happens to coincide with two different satellite launches, a Russian docking at the ISS, and one big meteor shower. The second window will have to contend with the smaller, but nastier of the two meteor showers AND the potential to violate joint safety guidelines with the shuttle still docked as the next Soyuz arrives. How bad can a meteor shower be? Well, bad enough that it could pose some threat to the shuttle itself. If all of these things keep STS 129 from flying this year it will have to be pushed back to the next available window in early 2010. For more information or to continue the conversation, join us live for our weekly show every Friday morning 2:00am Coordinated Universal Time. Remember to convert to your local time zone or check the Spacvidcast website for details.