NASA hopeful about Atlantis tank repair

Cape Canaveral (Florida): The hail-damaged fuel tank on space shuttle Atlantis likely will be repaired at the Florida launch site, minimising the delay for

NASA's first mission of the year, officials said on Monday.

NASA is hoping the fuel tank will be repaired in time for a late April or early May launch.

A three-day countdown for a mission to the International Space Station had been scheduled to start on Monday, leading to a Thursday liftoff from the

Kennedy Space Center.

But a freak storm on February 26 dropped hailstones as big as golf balls on the shuttle, damaging the thermal insulation on the ship's fuel tank.

Managers decided to return the ship to a processing hangar for detailed inspections and repairs to or replacement of the tank.

If the tank could not be repaired at the launch site, the flight would have to be delayed to June, when a replacement tank would be ready to fly.

"The inspections are still going on, but things are looking pretty positive to do the work (at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida) and not replace the tank," said June Malone, a spokeswoman at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which oversees the tank program.

Of the 7,000 hail impacts on the tank, engineers estimated several hundred would require repairs.

Some minor damage is being repaired, as the inspections are under way, Malone added.

NASA has been particularly sensitive to shuttle tank issues since the 2003 Columbia accident, which was triggered by a piece of tank foam insulation falling off and damaging the shuttle's wing during liftoff.

The impact broke open a heat panel on the wing, which allowed superheated atmospheric gases to get inside the structure as Columbia soared through the skies for landing 16 days later. The shuttle broke apart over Texas, killing all seven crewmembers aboard.

The Atlantis crew is scheduled to deliver and install a third set of electricity-producing solar panels to the station.

NASA needs to finish building the station by 2010 when the shuttle fleet is due to be retired.

At least 13 more flights to the station are needed to complete construction. NASA also would like to make a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope and fly two resupply flights to the station before the end of the shuttle programmme.