Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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June 21, 2007

Weather Threatens Planned Return of US Space Shuttle
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=17E5801:A6F02AD83191E160CAC1807BB4B7CBE09574F7DCC14957C0 Possibility of
thunderstorms and low clouds over landing site in Florida could
postpone return until Friday





A view of the space shuttle Atlantis as it performs a fly-around of
the space stationThe crew of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is
preparing for its first attempt at landing Thursday in the
southeastern U.S. state of Florida, but thunderstorms could delay the
touchdown.

The shuttle will have two opportunities to land at Kennedy Space
Center, the first just before 2:00 p.m. local time, and the second
less than two hours later. But weather experts are forecasting
thunderstorms and low clouds for the area, which could delay the
shuttle's landing until Friday.

If the Kennedy Center landing is delayed, officials at the U.S. space
agency NASA could decide to land the shuttle Friday at a backup site,
in the West Coast state of California.

Atlantis has enough supplies to stay in space until Sunday.

NASA engineers cleared the shuttle to land on Thursday after an
in-flight inspection determined a thermal blanket near the shuttle's
tail section could withstand the intense heat of re-entering Earth's
atmosphere.

The blanket was damaged on takeoff and later repaired during a
spacewalk.

During its 13-day mission, the Atlantis crew conducted four spacewalks
to install a new solar panel array on the International Space Station.
It also delivered U.S. astronaut Clayton Anderson as the newest member
of the orbital outpost's permanent crew.

Anderson replaces Sunita Williams, who spent six months aboard the
space station. She set the record for the longest spaceflight by a
woman during her mission.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.


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