Rain continued to threaten the Florida region for later Friday, increasing the prospects that the Atlantis shuttle may have to continue orbiting another day or land at an alternative field, according to dpa. NASA said the seven-member crew had closed the payload bay in preparation for landing, with the first possible de-orbit burn at 1712 GMT for an 1818 landing at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Thunderstorms in the vicinity forced flight controllers to scrub Thursday's landing. Another four landing opportunities through the day could put Atlantis variously back to Earth in Florida or on the west coast, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, NASA said. The west coast option adds huge costs to the shuttle programme because of the complex transport back to Cape Canaveral for the next launch. Atlantis' seven-member crew is returning from a now 14-day mission. It undocked from the International Space Station on Tuesday after conducting four spacewalks to install a new solar panel to the station and repair a damaged heat blanket on the shuttle. The shuttle also delivered Clayton Anderson to serve as the newest ISS crew member, replacing Sunita Williams, who is returning to Earth with Atlantis after setting a record for the longest time in space on one trip by a woman. During the Atlantis mission, a failure of the station's Russian navigation computers was blamed on the connection of the new electricity-generating solar panels. After several days of unease, astronauts repaired the computers, which are vital to controlling the pitch and altitude of the space station.
