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Endeavor trip delayed again

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The departure of the space shuttle Endeavour has been postponed again because of bad flying conditions. It is now scheduled to leave Tuesday morning, NASA said.

The shuttle will be mounted atop a modified Boeing 747 jetliner for a piggyback ride home to Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Technicians first encountered delays because three of eight custom-made pins used to bolt an aerodynamic cone to the shuttle’s tail were too large. Machinists were able to reduce the pins to the correct size and engineers reviewed the work to make sure they would withstand the stress of a cross-country flight.

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NASA spokesman Alan Brown said NASA officials were meeting Monday for a weather briefing and were considering making the first leg of the shuttle’s flight shorter than planned.

Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base, about 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles, on Nov. 30 after a 16-day mission to service the International Space Station.

Threat of thunderstorms at Cape Canaveral prompted the shuttle to be rerouted to California.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz and Rong-Gong Lin II

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