Nasa Delays Discovery Landing

Monday’s scheduled landing of the space shuttle Discovery was postponed for one day because of an overly cautious weather call by NASA.

Flight controllers feared predawn haze might turn into fog at the landing strip, so one hour before the scheduled touchdown, they ordered Discovery to stay in orbit until Tuesday.

No fog developed, however, and it turned into a splendid morning.

The astronauts didn’t mind the orbital overtime. They turned on a few science experiments out in the cargo bay and then played sightseers, admiring the breathtaking view from 160 miles up as the shuttle sped around Earth for a 12th day.

“We’ll definitely enjoy the day up here again,” shuttle commander Curtis Brown Jr. assured Mission Control.

For Tuesday, NASA again aimed for a single landing attempt at Kennedy Space Center just after sunrise. And again, there was a possibility of fog.

Although Discovery could return before dawn, flight directors decided before the mission to avoid a riskier touchdown in darkness. As a result, Brown and his copilot, Kent Rominger, did not train sufficiently for a nighttime landing.