Friday, August 19 2005 09:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The United States (US) space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) yesterday (August 18, 2005) delayed the next mission of the problem plagued space shuttle until at least March 2006, ruling out a launch originally scheduled for September 2005.

The agency also said the Discovery orbiter would be slotted into the flight, rather than the Atlantis vessel, which had been slated to perform the mission.

"NASA is now targeting March 2006 for the next Space Shuttle mission, STS-121," the agency said in a statement.

"Also, Discovery will be used for the mission instead of the Shuttle Atlantis."

Discovery safely returned earlier this month from the first space shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts in 2003.