CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida), Dec 6: NASA on Thursday postponed the planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for at least a day due to a technical glitch, just hours before it was due to blast off.

“The launch is scrubbed for at least 24 hours,” a NASA spokesman said.

The problem, which came to light before the craft was due to take off for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station, concerned two of the four gauges on the shuttle’s external fuel tanks.

The two gauges were showing that the fuel tank was empty when in fact it was almost full. A similar problem with the gauges occurred in July 2005, delaying a launch of the Discovery shuttle for a week.

NASA was confident it could resolve the problem.

“We keep all our options open” for a launch on Friday, said Doug Lyons, a member of the mission management team.—AFP