Wind gusts of nearly 30 m.p.h. in Florida and rain clouds in California prevented the space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts from returning to Earth on Monday.
For NASA’s 100th shuttle flight, it was the second day that bad weather kept the craft from landing, and it dragged the mission out to 13 days.
As one landing attempt after another was scrapped, Mission Control told the crew to enjoy the extra “window time.” Commander Brian Duffy sounded exasperated and sighed as he acknowledged the third delay of the day.
The Discovery is returning from a maintenance mission to the orbiting International Space Station.
The crew was told another landing attempt would be scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The weather at Edwards Air Force Base in California is expected to improve considerably Tuesday.
Discovery has enough fuel and power to stay aloft until Wednesday.
