Atlantis launch off at least until Saturday

NASA said the shuttle Atlantis will launch no earlier than Saturday after Thursday's launch was scrubbed when a pair of fuel gauges in its big external tank failed to work, a recurring problem since the Columbia disaster. Preliminary indications were that the problem might be with an open circuit rather than the gauges themselves -- perhaps a spliced line or 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 Friday launch attempt to give engineers more time to figure out what was wrong and resolve the trouble. "We need more time," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.