NASA on Tuesday put off its next space shuttle mission from May till July at the earliest to replace fuel sensors in the shuttle's external fuel tank that could give faulty readings.

The decision would leave scientific equipment and the German astronaut who should be sent to the ISS by Discovery on the ground, said Anatoly Perminov, director-general of the Russian Aerospace Agency.

The two spacemen aboard the station had to spend 90 percent of their precious time on normal maintenance of the ISS, Perminov said.

The official added that the equipment on the ISS which needed to be fetched back for reparation had to be stored at the station continuously.

Experts were considering whether to delay the date of the astronauts' space walking. The launch of Progress M-57 scheduled to follow that of Discovery was also affected by the NASA decision.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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