Atlantis at Pad 39A, awaiting a fueling test.
Fueling shuttle Atlantis will begin momentarily, as NASA engineers test low-fuel sensors that gave faulty readings and twice delayed launch attempts.
Diagnostic instruments have been attached to the sensor wiring. Engineers believe that faulty wiring or connectors are to blame for the intermittent readings.
"We're still awaiting the official call to begin slow fill," said NASA commentator George Diller at 7 a.m., when the test was scheduled to begin. "We'll be watching very closely to get one and possibly two sensors to fail as they have during launch attempts."
Atlantis is scheduled to launch Jan. 10 on a construction mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle and seven-member crew will deliver the Columbus laboratory module, which was built by the European Space Agency.
Meanwhile at the space station, astronauts Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani are conducting a critical spacewalk to determine the extent of damage to the joints that turn a solar wing toward the sun to generate electricity.
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