NASA scraps Discovery launch until end of month

WASHINGTON - Technical problems have forced NASA to delay the launch of the space shuttle Discovery until at least the end of this month, officials said.

Discovery’s launch has been delayed several times, initially due to technical problems and later complicated by poor weather. But more technical problems resurfaced ahead of a scheduled take-off Friday afternoon.

The latest problem was caused by a hydrogen leak severe enough to force NASA to scrap a back-up plan to get the shuttle up Monday.

“We’re going to fly when we’re ready and clearly were not ready to fly,” said Mike Moses, who heads the prelaunch management team, adding that it was important to “take this slowly”.

The next launch window is Nov 30 to Dec 5.