Weather delays shuttle landing

SPACE CENTER, Houston -- Clouds over the landing site in Florida canceled space shuttle Endeavour's first attempt Wednesday afternoon to touch down, delaying the homecoming of the international space station's former crew.\n"Unfortunately, due to weather beginning to deteriorate, we'd like to wave you off on this attempt," Mission Control told the shuttle crew.\nThe crew had a second opportunity to land Wednesday, but the weather was expected to worsen. Mission Control told the shuttle crew it was debating whether to try the second attempt or hold off a day. Thursday's forecast was dismal.\nThe shuttle is the ride back to Earth for the space station Alpha crew of U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev. They spent the past six months aboard the orbiting outpost and were the fifth resident crew.\nEndeavour, which launched on Nov. 23, has enough fuel and supplies to stay in orbit until Sunday. The backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California would probably not be called up until Saturday, if needed, said flight director Wayne Hale.\nThe space station's returning crew members won't mind if they have to spend a few more days in space. They have already spent an extra 1 1/2 months living aboard Alpha because of various problems that delayed the shuttle's flight.\n"It's not really a big deal," Whitson said. She described the shuttle as "pretty cozy," but did acknowledge it is quite a bit smaller than the station and takes some getting used to.\nThe shuttle undocked from the space station on Monday with Whitson and her crewmates, leaving behind their replacements -- two Americans and one Russian -- who will remain aboard the orbiting outpost until March.\nDuring their one-week visit to Alpha, Endeavour's four-astronaut crew helped install a new $390 million, 45-foot girder on the space station during three spacewalks.