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From Yahoo! News: Science News:
A technical problem that has pushed back the launch of the Atlantis until January broke NASA's good track record this year of three successful shuttle launches.
The Atlantis' delay is significant since its crew of seven, including a German and a French astronaut, were expected to install the European Columbus laboratory on the orbiting International Space Station.
Some 750 people were invited to witness the Atlantis' blastoff from Cape Canaveral -- at a cost to NASA one source put at two million dollars -- on a long-awaited mission of great significance for the European Space Agency.
False readings from four sensors on the Atlantis' external hydrogen fuel tank delayed the Atlantis launch -- initially scheduled for Thursday -- four times before NASA finally decided Sunday to postpone it until January 2.
The Atlantis launch window for this month would have ended December 13.
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