Tuesday, August 9 2005 15:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston: The landing of space shuttle Discovery has been delayed by 96 minutes because of weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has delayed the landing of the shuttle from 5.07AM EDT (1437 IST) to 6.43 AM (1613 IST).

"We are going to officially wave of the first attempt," said Ken Ham at mission control.

"We are holding some hope for the section option at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast," he said.

Mission Control Houston called the Discovery crew to wave off the first landing opportunity as weather conditions at the landing site were not acceptable for that opportunity.

For today's (August 09, 2005) landing attempts, NASA opened runways at Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as well as Kennedy.

"We will attempt to land somewhere," said entry flight director LeRoy Cain.

Discovery could remain in orbit until tomorrow (August 10, 2005) when reactants for the shuttle's power-producing fuel cells run low. But Cain said NASA will exercise that option only in the event of a technical problem.

The two landing attempts yesterday (August 8, 2005) were limited to the Florida shuttle port because NASA prefers to land there.