Qa'dah 26, 1431, Nov 03, 2010, SPA -- NASA announced Tuesday it has delayed the launch of the space shuttle Discovery yet again, this time due to a circuitry glitch to the backup systems that was found earlier in the day. The launch was pushed back 24 hours, until about 3:30 p.m. ET Thursday, NASA said. "The Prelaunch Mission Management Team wants to give engineers more time to look deeply into two electrical issues from a main engine computer controller that cropped up this morning," NASA said in a statement on its website quoted by CNN. "Therefore, the launch of space shuttle Discovery on STS-133 has been delayed until at least Thursday." The management team is to meet again at 2 p.m. Wednesday to decide whether to launch Thursday. A liftoff Thursday would be at 3:29 p.m. The six-member crew, led by Cmdr. Steven Lindsey, will install a new "permanent multipurpose module" called Leonardo on the International Space Station. Discovery was NASA's third space shuttle orbiter to join the fleet. It launched on its first mission on August 30, 1984, to deploy three communications satellites. Since then, it has completed more than 30 missions, more than any other orbiter in the fleet.
