Florida ? NASA on Sunday delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until January after a gauge in the fuel tank failed for the second time in four days.

With only a few days remaining in the launch window for the shuttle’s mission to the international space station, senior managers decided to stand down until next month in hopes of better understanding the perplexing and persistent fuel gauge problem.

“We’re determined to get to the bottom of this,” said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

Whether Atlantis can fly as early as Jan. 2 “is all going to depend on what we find out,” he said.