WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The first shuttle flight of this year has been delayed until early June so that technicians can complete repairs to the hail-damaged fuel tank of Atlantis, NASA officials said Tuesday.

    Lift off will now take place no earlier than June 8, almost three months later than the originally scheduled launch date of March 15.

    The shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank was damaged in a hail storm in February. As a result, the craft was rolled off the launch pad and sent back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. NASA had hoped to have the craft in time for a May mission to the International Space Station but the work could not be completed in time.

    NASA managers had been assessing for weeks whether to finish repairing the tank or use another one. However, officials are pleased with the progress of repairs that already have been made and have decided to continue with the plan to use the original tank.

    "We don't see any showstoppers in front of us ... but there is still a lot of work to be done," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations.

    Atlantis' crew will continue training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. This will be the first shuttle flight of 2007.