NASA managers were last night not ruling out a July 4 launch for space shuttle Discovery, even after inspectors found a five-inch-long crack in the foam insulation on its external fuel tank.

SPACE shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts blasted off yesterday on America’s first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Nasa will try to launch Discovery on the first space shuttle mission in more than two years next Tuesday, and may press ahead with lift-off even if there’s a repeat of the fuel gauge problem that halted last week’s countdown.