Faulty fuel cell blamed for shuttle delay, NASA hope for a Friday liftoff for Atlantis mission.

Citing safety concerns about a short circuit in one of the three fuel cells that supplies electricity for all the on-board systems of the shuttle, NASA delayed the launch of Wednesday’s scheduled Atlantis liftoff.

NASA flight director Wayne Hale said “I still am hopeful and I certainly believe there's an opportunity to fly Friday morning.”

With safety concerns in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster which resulted in the death of the entire crew, NASA is not taking any chances with this mission. Atlantis was originally scheduled to launch in May of 2003 but was scrapped after the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated in February.

It was again delayed in late August after a lightning strike struck the launching pad and the threat of Tropical Storm Ernesto produced unfavorable conditions.

The six members of the Atlantis are scheduled to deliver 16 tons of equipment to further construction on the International Space Station. It will be the heaviest payload any shuttle has ever carried. Among the work to be done by the crew is the installation of a $372 million solar power module to the space station.

It is hoped that a liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida will take place Friday. If not, they may have to wait until late October because of a scheduled visit to the space station by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.