Bad weather delays shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL // NASA delayed the lift off of the space shuttle Discovery by a day because of stormy weather at the Florida launch site. The US space agency said it would try to launch Discovery again on Wednesday. Rain and lightning moved over the seaside launch site late on Monday. It had begun to dissipate shortly before the shuttle was to launch, but not in time to meet flight safety rules. "We have worked the weather as hard as we can but we are no-go for launch," Nasa launch director Pete Nickolenko radioed to the astronauts aboard Discovery.

The shuttle is due to leave on a 13-day mission to stock the International Space Station with food, spare parts, laboratory gear and research mice for bone-density experiments. The orbiting space station is a US$100 billion (Dh367.3b) project of 16 nations. * Reuters