NASA to go ahead with Sunday shuttle launch

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA decided to go ahead and try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday, using a plan presented by the astronauts to limit the risks posed by an electronics glitch.

The U.S. space agency will start the process early on Sunday for a 3:21 p.m. EST launch of Atlantis and its cargo of a European science station from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"All parties agreed that it was safe to go fly," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told a news conference.

The shuttle is carrying Europe's Columbus module to the International Space Station. NASA had hoped to be in orbit already, but an initial launch attempt on Thursday was called off after inaccurate readings from a pair of sensors in the shuttle's external fuel tank.

The sensors are part of a backup system to cut off the shuttle's three hydrogen-burning main engines if the tank should run out of fuel during the climb to orbit due to a leak or other problem.

Running the engines without propellant could cause their pumps to break and possibly trigger a catastrophic explosion.

Experts met for much of the day on Friday and again on Saturday to discuss what to do. "There were several hundred people from the agency involved," Hale said.

Hale said the shuttle will launch only if there are no more glitches.