Atlantis to head back to Earth

FLORIDA, Oct 5: Cloudy and windy weather here has delayed the return of the US space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-man crew until Monday, ...

FLORIDA, Oct 5: Cloudy and windy weather here has delayed the return of the US space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-man crew until Monday, Nasa said.The shuttle will have two opportunities for landing at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, NASA said — at 5:55 pm (2155 GMT) and at 7:31 pm (2331 GMT). Atlantis had been set to land at 2256 GMT Sunday.

“The forecast is basically the same for tomorrow with low clouds and high winds, but there is no plan at this time for a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California,” Bruce Buckingham, a spokesman at the

Center, said Sunday.

Despite the delay, the mission has put the accident-prone space station Mir and US-Russian space cooperation back on track.pDuring the six days the Mir and Atlantis were docked, the shuttle crew, including Frenchman Jean-Loup Chretien and Russian Vladimir Titov, gave the Russian station a new lease of life, replacing the damaged main computer and delivering eight tonnes of food and supplies.

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Additionally, Atlantis’ powerful cameras located debris leaking from the space module Spektr, damaged in a collision between Mir and a cargo ship on June 25.

With the breach in Spektr’s fuselage located, Titov and US astronaut Scott Parazynski plugged it with a round metal disc during a five-hour spacewalk on Wednesday in a preliminary step to permanent repair.

“Both crews have done a terrific job up there,” said Frank Culbertson, who heads the Mir-Atlantis docking program for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.