spacetoday.net: Weather delays shuttle landing

Posted: Mon, Aug 8, 2005, 8:56 AM ET (1256 GMT)
STS-114: logo (NASA)

"Unstable" weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center forced NASA to delay Monday morning's landing of the space shuttle Discovery for one day and created the possibility that the shuttle could land in California or New Mexico. Discovery was scheduled to land at KSC early Monday, but two landing attempts planned for 4:47 am and 6:22 am EDT (0847 and 1022 GMT) were scrubbed because variable low clouds over the landing strip made shuttle managers uncomfortable about committing to a landing, even though weather conditions were good enough to attempt a landing when the decision was made to scrub the second landing attempt. NASA now plans to land the shuttle on Tuesday, with landing opportunities at KSC at 5:07 am or 6:43 am EDT (0907 or 1043 GMT). However, if weather again precludes a landing at KSC, shuttle managers plan to land the shuttle at either Edwards Air Force Base, California or at White Sands, New Mexico. The shuttle has enough supplies to stay on orbit through Wednesday.