Shuttle launch is delayed over glitch with fuel gauges

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. —  NASA called off Thursday’s launch of the space shuttle Atlantis after a pair of fuel gauges in its big external tank failed to work properly, a recurring problem since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Shuttle managers said the next launch attempt would be no earlier than Saturday.

Preliminary indications were that the problem might be with an open circuit rather than the gauges themselves -- perhaps a spliced line or a bad connector -- which would be easier to fix.

Mission managers met well into the evening, debating how best to proceed with the countdown.

They decided to forgo a launch attempt today to give engineers more time to figure out what was wrong and resolve the trouble.

“We need more time,” said Le Roy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

Launch director Doug Lyons said he was hopeful the launch team would get another crack at getting Atlantis off the pad before the end of next week. Because of poor sun angles and computer concerns, NASA would have to wait until the beginning of January to launch Atlantis and the European Space Agency’s space station lab, Columbus, if they aren’t flying by Thursday or Friday.

The fuel tank sensors are part of a crucial backup system to ensure that the shuttle’s three main engines don’t shut down too soon or too late during liftoff -- a potentially catastrophic problem.

Problems with the sensors have delayed shuttle launches before.