The U.S. space agency on Friday moved back the launch of the first shuttle since the Columbia disaster from May to July over concerns that ice might chip off and damage it on liftoff. The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Michael Griffin, announced the delay of the shuttle Discovery's liftoff to a launch window of July 13 to 31. "We're going to return to flight; we're not going to rush to flight," Griffin said at NASA's headquarters in Washington. "We're going to do it right." One of the concerns involves ice that forms on the shuttle's external fuel tank because of the low temperature of the fuel. Videotapes of earlier shuttle flights showed the ice breaking off on liftoff, and NASA engineers are concerned that it could damage the shuttle as it flies into space. Two years ago, a chunk of the insulation on the fuel tank ripped off on liftoff and damaged the shuttle Columbia. The damage caused Columbia to break apart when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere at the end of its mission, killing all seven astronauts aboard. --More 2232 Local Time 1932 GMT
