Shuttle launch cancelled

Nasa called off today’s planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis after a gauge in a fuel tank failed for the second time in four days.

Nasa began fuelling the shuttle at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 6am (1100 Irish time), hoping that the gauges in its big external tank would work properly and allow launch controllers to proceed with an afternoon lift-off.

Shuttle managers said they would halt the countdown and call everything off if any of the four hydrogen fuel gauges acted up. Three failed during Thursday’s launch attempt; no one knows why.