Discovery’s return put on hold for 24 hours
Space shuttle Discovery’s return to Earth has been put on hold for at least 24 hours due to bad weather at its landing site.
The seven crew members aboard Discovery had been preparing for their re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Low-lying cloud which could obscure the landing strip forced flight controllers to scrub Monday’s two landing windows at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center.
Discovery’s mission is the first flight for the shuttle since Columbia broke up on re-entry in February 2003.
The shuttle was originally due to land at 0946 BST (0446 EST; 0846 GMT). The crew were told to circle the planet again in the hope that weather problems would clear.
But a persistent cloud deck at low altitude finally forced mission controllers to give up on bringing the shuttle down for 1121 BST (0621 EST; 1021 GMT).
The shuttle’s first landing opportunity on Tuesday is at 1007 BST (0507 EST; 0907 GMT) at Kennedy Space Center.
Back-up strips are scheduled at Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands in New Mexico.
While the forecast for Kennedy is similar for tomorrow, the outlook at Edwards Air Force Base is favourable all week.