NASA May Land Endeavour In California After Bad Weather In Florida

Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AHN) - Bad weather in Florida has delayed the expected landing of the space shuttle Endeavour to Earth as NASA officials may be forced to divert it to California later in the day.

The seven astronauts inside the space shuttle will remain in orbit a little longer than planned after the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston projected thunderstorms at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday.

The NASA's Web site said the weather conditions led the flight controllers to pass on Endeavour's second landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center. The two landing opportunities in Florida were at at 1:19 p.m. and 2:54 p.m.

The statement said that the next opportunity for the space shuttle Endeavour or STS-126 to land is at 4:25 p.m. EST and 6 p.m. at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

"Endeavour arrived at the station Nov. 16, delivering equipment that will help allow the station to double its crew size to six," the NASA said in the statement.

"In addition, the STS-126 astronauts delivered Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who replaced Greg Chamitoff, now a mission specialist returning to Earth aboard Endeavour."

The space shuttle Endeavour is the 124th shuttle mission and 27th shuttle flight to visit the space station.