While Nasa reassesses plans to launch Europe's Columbus laboratory, preparations continue for the debut flight of Europe's cargo ship to the International Space Station. Repairing the space shuttle's faulty fuel sensor system will probably postpone Columbus' arrival at the orbital outpost to late January or February.
A NASA teleconference was held today with Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale about the STS-122 repair. NASA will attempt to do all the repairs to Atlantis' External Tank on the launch pad. However, if that were not possible, then the Space Shuttle might have to be rolled back into the VAB.
"We have no launch date to talk about today" - Wayne Hale.
NASA has further delayed the launch of the space shuttle to allow for the holiday period. The launch of the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-122 has been rescheduled for January 10th, 2008.
The US space agency Nasa has delayed launch of the Atlantis shuttle until 2008 because of a persistent problem with a sensor on a fuel tank. A preliminary launch date has now been set for 2 January, 2008.
NASA has cancelled todays launch of the space shuttle Atlantis after a sensor in the shuttle fuel tank failed for a second time during routine preflight checks.
Nasa officials have further delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until Sunday after engineers reported faults on two fuel gauges. Two of the four sensors in the craft's external fuel tank indicated that the tank was dry, even though there was propellant inside, a spokesman said. The launch had been set for Thursday, but has now been delayed three times.