NASA delays shuttle launch until at least Friday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Sep 7 (Reuters) NASA further delayed the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis until at least tomorow, a NASA official said.

''We're going to delay at least 24 hours, until Friday,'' NASA press secretary Dean Acosta said yesterday.

The US space agency had planned to launch the shuttle on a construction mission to the International Space Station earlier on Wednesday but the discovery of a technical glitch in an onboard fuel cell forced managers to delay liftoff.

The latest postponement, which followed a lengthy meeting of NASA managers, meant a launch would not be attempted until at least tomorrw at 11:40 a.m. (1540 GMT).

REUTERS DH PM0425