The space shuttle Atlantis's mission to the International Space Station, which has seen its launch repeatedly delayed due to technical problems, will likely take place in late January or early February, NASA said Thursday.
The US space agency said it was performing tests to determine whether faulty fuel gauges on the spacecraft's liquid hydrogen tank have been repaired to satisfaction ahead of the launch, initially scheduled for December 6.
"There's no way that we're going to be earlier than January 24th," said space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale, admitting "it is a stretch to think that we'll make the 24th."
"I asked the team to protect that day as the earliest date that we could possibly go," Hale said.
"I think it's much more likely that we'll be going to be ready somewhere in the February 2 to 7 time frame, given that we don't have any more findings as we go through our testing."
NASA technicians have devised a replacement connector to replace a faulty one "suspected of causing issues in space shuttle Atlantis' fuel sensor system," but it has not yet been installed, NASA said on its website.
