Next shuttle mission delayed

Nasa’s next space shuttle launch has been delayed by nearly a week after a new fuel tank arrived late.

Discovery had been scheduled to blast off on May 25, but the arrival of an external fuel tank for the space station mission was held up by bad weather.

The tank finally arrived at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida from its assembly plant in New Orleans last week.

Nasa also wanted to avoid having the launch team work through the Memorial Day weekend.

Discovery, which will now blast off on May 31, will ferry Japan’s massive Kibo lab to the international space station.

The first section of the lab went up on the last shuttle flight, which ended last Wednesday.