Bad weather forced NASA managers to order the shuttle Discovery not to land in Florida on Friday afternoon but said it would try again for landings in Florida, California or New Mexico within hours, Reuters reported. Discovery's astronauts closed their ship's cargo bay doors earlier in the day in preparation for a return to Earth after a 13-day mission to rewire the International Space Station. NASA decided not to have the shuttle land in Florida on Friday afternoon after meteorologists predicted that low clouds could block the pilots' view of the Florida runway. Rain was also possible in the area. "We're officially now waving off this opportunity at the Cape. The weather there continues to be unstable," astronaut Ken Ham, speaking from Mission Control in Houston, told Discovery commander Mark Polansky. NASA's next opportunity to land the spacecraft was at 5:27 p.m. EST (2227 GMT) at Edwards Air Force Base in California or at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. White Sands Space Harbor is a rarely used backup site in New Mexico, where the weather is forecast to be good for landing. If Florida's weather improves, NASA also could choose to land Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:32 p.m. EST (2232 GMT). NASA will have several more opportunities for landing in California or New Mexico on Friday. Usually, NASA would keep the shuttle in orbit an extra day if the weather in Florida or California was not suitable for touchdown. But flight directors used one of Discovery's landing contingency days to stay at the International Space Station to fix a jammed solar wing panel. The shuttle blasted off on Dec. 9.
