Shuttle Flight Delayed

NASA has delayed indefinitely its next space shuttle flight because of heat damage to critical O-ring seals in booster rockets used in the last two launches.

Endeavour was supposed to blast off Aug. 5 on a science mission.

Shuttle manager Brewster Shaw said Friday that NASA will not launch Endeavour until engineers are confident they understand the O-ring problem.

Hot gas from burning rocket fuel singed primary O-rings in the booster nozzles of Atlantis and Discovery in late June and July.