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Shuttle faces problem

HOUSTON: The space shuttle Atlantis’ mission to the International Space Station likely will be pushed back a few more days or weeks as engineers study problems with electrical connectors in the spaceship’s external fuel tank, said a top NASA manager.

Failures of shuttle fuel gauges — part of a critical safety system — forced back-to-back launch delays earlier this month.

NASA had been aiming for a January 10 liftoff of Atlantis with a European lab for the space station. But shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale indicated last week that the launch likely would be delayed after a test pointed to a bad connector.

On Thursday, Mr. Hale said it would probably take a few days or weeks to pinpoint and solve the problem. But he said it was too soon to announce a new target launch date because so much work still has to be done.

“At this point, schedule is not paramount in my mind,” he said. “It’s going to take as long as it takes ... days to perhaps a couple weeks.” — AP

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