News In Brief

Space shuttle launch postponed for repairs

The scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery was postponed Monday when a backup computer aboard the craft failed to agree with four other computers that control its flight.

''The data told us we had a serious hardware problem,'' Thomas Utsman, director of shuttle management and operations, told reporters after Discovery was ordered grounded for at least 24 hours.

The shuttle's six crew members were strapped in their seats when the postponement order was issued nine minutes before the scheduled blastoff.