Space Shuttle Discovery: Cracks Push Space Shuttle Discovery Launch to Feb.

Space shuttle Discovery rests on Pad 39A November 1, 2010 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as preparations are made for a scheduled Nov. 3 launch. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

Cracks in Space Shuttle Discovery’s external tank will force the space shuttle’s launch date into February, NASA said on Thursday.

X-rays on Space Shuttle Discovery’s external tank stringers since Dec. 22 showed four small cracks on the side of the tank opposite the space shuttle, NASA announced in a statement.

The agency said that repairs, which may take two or three days, will be “in a similar fashion to repairs made on cracks discovered after the Nov. 5 launch attempt.”

Engineers will decide by Jan. 3 whether other stringers on Discovery’s external tank will need modifications or fixes.

Stringers are support beams that help to stabilize the external fuel tank’s intertank section, according to PC Magazine. There are 108 stringers that line the tank.

NASA had planned on launching Discovery on Dec. 17, but the earliest the space shuttle will go up into space is now February 2011.

Instead, NASA is eyeing a window between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, with a preferred launch time currently proposed for Feb. 3 at 1:37 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral, Fla.