NASA has waved off Endeavour's first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center in Florida due to bad weather, now waiting for the second landing chance there on Sunday afternoon, according to NASA TV.
Endeavour, with seven astronauts aboard, is returning from a delivery and repair mission to the International Space Station. It has been scheduled to land at 1:19 EST (1819 GMT) at KSC. But the high crosswinds there will violate the flight rules, which forced mission manager to delay the landing.
NASA is closely monitoring the weather at KSC. And the second landing opportunity at KSC is at 2:54 p.m. EST (1954 GMT). There are also two opportunities available later at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers have activated the runway at Edwards as a backup.
Mission controllers asked the Endeavour crew to turn off a flash evaporator system, which vents the water out as a steam, to conserve water in case of a later landing time.
Endeavour was launched into space on Nov. 14. It delivered a series of new equipment to the station and finished some important servicing job outside the orbital outpost. It has been in space for 16 days.
Source: Xinhua
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