NASA Delays Picking Atlantis Launch Date

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA managers won’t decide until next month when to try launching Atlantis on the year’s first space shuttle mission.

Officials today said the timetable will give technicians more time to assess hail damage to the shuttle’s external fuel tank. Atlantis originally was scheduled to lift off last week.

The mission was postponed after hail last month caused dings on foam insulation as the shuttle sat on the Florida launch pad.

Authorities say NASA managers probably will wait until April tenth before deciding whether to use the current tank or swap it out with another one. Such a move would push back the next shuttle try until June.

The insulating foam is of special concern to NASA since a chunk of it flew off during shuttle Columbia’s 2003 launch and struck the orbiter. Columbia broke apart and burned over East Texas, killing the seven-person crew.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-03-21-07 1823EDT