NASA has delayed the launch of the space shuttle Discovery until at least Saturday at the earliest due to a problem with a sensor in the external fuel tank.
The U.S. space agency called off Wednesday's scheduled mission, about two hours before Discovery was to have blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. At a news conference, NASA said the cause of the problem remains unexplained and that the external fuel tank is being drained as the space agency tries to find out what happened. NASA says as far as it knows, the other sensors are working properly.
On Tuesday, a plastic and foam window cover fell off the shuttle and caused minor damage to two heat resistant tiles. The tiles were later repaired. This is to be the first shuttle flight since the February 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster.