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Shuttle landing delayed to Thursday

By IRENE BROWN, UPI Science News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Shuttle Endeavour will remain in orbit until at least Thursday and probably longer, due to clouds from an approaching cold front that gathered over Central Florida as flight directors were about to clear the spaceship for landing on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, due to weather beginning to deteriorate at the Cape, we'd like to wave you off this attempt," astronaut Duane Carey at NASA's Mission Control Center told Endeavour commander Jim Wetherbee, who had been awaiting word to fire the shuttle's braking rockets to leave orbit.

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Flight directors monitored weather reports while the shuttle circled the globe and prepared for a second landing opportunity at the Kennedy Space Center later in the afternoon.

However, the clouds grew even thicker and were expected to stay that way until Friday and possibly longer.

The shuttle, which is returning with three space station crewmembers who have been in orbit aboard the International Space Station since June 5, has enough supplies to remain in space until Sunday. However, Endeavour only has enough fuel for four more landing attempts.

NASA has a backup shuttle-landing site in California, but prefers to land in Florida to save the time and the $1 million expense of flying the spaceship back to Florida on top of a special jet carrier.

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A landing in Florida on Thursday would occur at 2:54 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available at 4:30 p.m.

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