23 May 2009

Bad weather delays return of shuttle

12:05 pm on 23 May 2009

NASA has delayed the return to Earth of a space shuttle as a result of bad weather at the landing site.

Officials decided to abort two scheduled landing opportunities for Atlantis on Friday at the Kennedy Space Center.

Instead, an attempt will be made to land on Saturday, either in Florida or at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Astronauts aboard Atlantis have carried out a re-fit of the Hubble telescope, which is regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built.

New instruments and thermal blankets were installed, two existing instruments repaired and gyroscopes and batteries replaced.

The BBC reports the shuttle has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday if necessary.