Space Shuttle Launch Delayed by Thick Clouds

This adventure was adapted at 4:59 a.m. ET.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Blubbery clouds baffled the

attempted predawn barrage of NASA's amplitude shuttle Endeavour on Sunday, forcing

the orbiter's six-astronaut aggregation to delay at atomic one added day afore rocketing

into orbit.

Despite aboriginal predictions of adequate weather, a blubbery layer

of below clouds crept in over NASA's Kennedy Amplitude Center here, preventing

Endeavour's planned 4:39 a.m. EST (0939 GMT) barrage against the International

Space Station. The astronauts

were already beggared central their seats apprehension liftoff.

"We were aloof not adequate with ablution the space

shuttle tonight so we're activity to go into a 24-hour scrub," NASA launch

director Mike Leinbach radioed Endeavour's crew. "Thank you all for the effort

you all put in tonight."

"You gave it a abundant try tonight. Sometimes you've got to

just accomplish the call," Endeavour administrator George Zamka replied. "We understand

and we'll accord it addition try tomorrow."

Endeavour is now slated to barrage no beforehand than Monday

at 4:14 a.m. EST (0914 GMT), but NASA is still discussing whether to try for

that day or delay for a afterwards barrage attempt, NASA analysis administrator Pete Nickolenko

said afterwards the barrage attempt. There is a 60 percent adventitious of adequate acclimate predicted

for Monday, NASA admiral added.

The blubbery billow band for Sunday's barrage was aerial at

about 3,800 anxiety aloft Endeavour's barrage sit. The band was about 600 feet

thick. It was a activating situation, with altitude clashing aback and forth

between adequate and unacceptable for launch. At one point, Leinbach said he

had never apparent annihilation like the empiric acclimate in his absolute career as a

shuttle barrage director.

NASA's amplitude shuttle flight rules crave billow ceilings no

lower than 4,000 anxiety and no thicker than 500 feet, Nickolenko said.

Endeavour's six-astronaut aggregation affairs to fly a 13-day

mission to bear a new allowance and observation

deck to the International Amplitude Station.

The mission is the aboriginal of NASA's bristles final shuttle

missions afore backward its crumbling amplitude shuttle agile afterwards this year.

Endeavour has aloof one added adventitious to lift off (Monday's

opportunity) afore NASA would angle bottomward in adjustment to barrage the new Solar

Dynamics Observatory – a sun-watching delving – aloft an unmanned Atlas 5

rocket. That mission is now set to barrage Feb. 10 from the Cape Canaveral Air

Force Station abreast the Kennedy Amplitude Center.

It takes about two canicule for NASA and the Air Force to

turn about the Eastern Range they allotment for rocket and shuttle launches.

• Video - Endeavour's Mission: Amplitude Windows and Rooms
• Video

  - Behind the Scenes of Endeavour's STS-130 Mission

• Images

  - Amplitude Shuttle's Midnight Launch

SPACE.com is accouterment complete advantage of

Endeavour's STS-130 mission to the International Amplitude Station with Managing Editor

Tariq Malik in Cape Canaveral and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click here for shuttle

mission updates and a articulation to NASA TV.

• Original Story: Space Shuttle Barrage Delayed by Blubbery Clouds

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