Shuttle Mission Postponed as Storm Clouds Move In

Storm clouds forced NASA to call off Thursday’s launch of space shuttle Endeavour on a mission to deliver a new crew to the international space station and fix the orbiting outpost’s robot arm.

Launch managers said they may try again as early as this evening, even though the weather was expected to worsen.

The delay means yet another day in orbit--and a record-breaking stay--for Americans Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz and Russian Yuri Onufrienko, who have been living aboard the space station since December.

Their mission, already at the 176-day mark, will reach at least 189 days by the time they return to Earth. The U.S. space endurance record stands at 188 days; Shannon Lucid posted that aboard Russia’s Mir space station in 1996.

The delay came as no surprise to the seven astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Endeavour. Approaching thunderstorms had threatened to force postponement of the flight all day.

The launch team also had to deal with a brief problem with one of Endeavour’s orbital-maneuvering systems that cropped up late in the countdown.

The countdown was halted at the nine-minute mark.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, fighter jets enforced a no-fly zone around the launch pad, and the surrounding waters were off-limits. The crew departed for the pad in secrecy as part of the anti-terrorism precautions adopted after Sept. 11.

Endeavour will bring a new crew to relieve Bursch, Walz and Onufrienko. Their replacements, American Peggy Whitson and Russians Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev, will spend four months aboard.

During the eight days that Endeavour is docked to the space station, the shuttle crew will conduct three spacewalks to fix the robot arm and do other exterior work.

The 58-foot arm--Canada’s main space station contribution--requires repair because one of its joints seized up. Engineers have worked around the problem but want to fix it before the arm is needed for major construction later this year.

The two spacewalkers--one American, one Frenchman--also will install a base that will enable the robot arm to move across the space station.