Weather Keeps Endeavour Flying

For the second day, bad weather prevented space shuttle Endeavour from returning from its space station visit.

Thursday’s delay added a 184th day in orbit for the three former residents of the international space station, whose families anxiously awaited their return at a cloudy Cape Canaveral.

Today’s forecast was far from perfect, but NASA was hoping it would be good enough for Endeavour to land. If the weather still does not cooperate, the shuttle will be guided to a Saturday touchdown on one coast or the other, flight director Wayne Hale said.

NASA is reluctant to divert its space shuttles to Edwards Air Force Base in California because of the expense and time involved in ferrying the spaceships back to their home port in Florida.

Endeavour and its crew have enough fuel and supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday.

The seven astronauts and cosmonauts got a hint of what was to come when they woke up: Mission Control piped in a recording of the Eagles’ 1976 hit “Hotel California.”

The space station’s returning crew, astronaut Peggy Whitson and cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev, rocketed off the planet June 5. They spent an extra 1 1/2 months in orbit because of a variety of problems that delayed Endeavour’s flight to retrieve them.

Endeavour blasted off Nov. 23 with the replacement crew and another new space station girder.

The space station crew members face weeks of intensive physical therapy after the return.

They will not only have to regain muscle strength and coordination as they readjust to life in Earth gravity, they will also become guinea pigs for the study of how long-duration spaceflight has affected such things as bone mass, muscle loss and nerve conduction.

The debilitating effect of long-term spaceflight is an impediment to deep space missions, such as one to Mars, NASA says.

The shuttle’s launch was delayed by a series of mishaps, including tiny cracks discovered in its engine compartment.