NASA waves off first landing opportunity for Atlantis

Clouds over the runway at Kennedy Space Center on Monday

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- Clouds moved over the Kennedy Space Center again Tuesday morning, forcing NASA to bypass the day's first landing opportunity for the space shuttle Atlantis.

"The weather forecasters continue to see some clouds off the coast," Mission Control said. "They are showing some broken conditions rather than scattered conditions over the shuttle landing facility area and that is a 'no-go'situation for landing because of obscured visibility on final approach."

The next opportunity for landing is at 2:02 p.m. EST at Kennedy Space Center.

VIDEO Astronaut Bill Shepherd shows off the Destiny science lab Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MISSION GUIDE All about STS-98     INTERACTIVE A 360° stroll through the international space station Cult3D models of the international space station, space shuttle Columbia, and Soyuz       ALSO Space Shuttle Central     MESSAGE BOARD Human spaceflight

The shuttle also could land Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base in California and at Northrup Strip at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. But NASA prefers to land back at Kennedy Space Center because of the time and expense involved in ferrying the shuttle back to KSC.

Atlantis has enough fuel, food and electrical power to stay aloft until Wednesday.

The crew originally was scheduled to touch down Sunday after an 11-day mission that included installation of the international space station's science laboratory module, Destiny.

Mission highlights

  • Atlantis' primary mission was the delivery of the U.S.-built Destiny science laboratory, which was installed and connected during three spacewalks. With the new addition, the space station Alpha became the roomiest spacecraft ever to fly, surpassing the Russian space station Mir.

  • The third spacewalk marked a NASA milestone -- the 100th of the U.S space program. NASA estimates that 152 more spacewalks will be needed before construction is completed in 2006 on Alpha, a $100 billion undertaking of the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.

  • The spacewalkers also connected a docking port on the end of Destiny, which will be used in the future by shuttles arriving at the space station.

  • The crews of Atlantis and Alpha moved 1.5 tons of equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft, including water, food, spare parts, a spare carbon dioxide-removal unit, a spare computer, clothes and DVDs.

  • Atlantis is bringing back to Earth about 850 pounds (386 kilograms) of trash from Alpha, including used batteries, packing materials and empty food containers.

High winds blow Atlantis landing back to Monday
February 18, 2001
Shuttle departs space station, prepares to head home
February 15, 2001
Atlantis, space station crews monitoring Destiny
February 13, 2001
Space station meets Destiny
February 10, 2001
Shuttle brings science lab, gifts to space station
February 9, 2001
Shuttle set for rendezvous with space station
February 8, 2001
Shuttle lifts off on 'high-pressure' mission
February 7, 2001
$1.4 bill space lab sparks fierce science debate
February 6, 2001

NASA Human SpaceFlight
 • STS-98
Space Station Science Operation News
International Space Station Home
International Space Station Overview

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.