The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Monday it is delaying its space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope until next year because of an unexpected breakdown of the orbiting telescope. Space shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to take off in two weeks, carrying seven astronauts on a mission to upgrade the telescope. But on Saturday night, Hubble stopped sending science data, officials said from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Now NASA must plan a new mission, which could include a replacement part, and the space agency must provide additional training to the astronauts. The mission has been delayed until early next year, perhaps in February, NASA said. The astronauts had trained for two years to make a series of upgrades to the 18-year-old telescope.
