CAPE CANAVERAL — Space shuttle Endeavour aimed for a landing
tonight at NASA's spaceport, but rainy and cloudy weather
threatened to delay the astronauts' homecoming. Endeavour and
its crew of six are returning from a bigger and certainly
brighter International Space Station. They added a new room and
a dome containing seven windows in a highly successful mission
that won presidential praise. LeRoy Cain, chairman of the
mission management team, said Saturday there's about a 50-50
chance that the weather will cooperate. "We're always hopeful,
and I guess I would call it optimistic," he told reporters.
Mission Control will have Edwards Air Force Base in California,
the backup site, ready to support a landing as well, just in
case Florida doesn't pan out. Marginal weather is expected at
Edwards tonight. On Monday, conditions are expected to worsen at
Cape Canaveral but improve in California. As a last resort, NASA
could always consider the White Sands landing strip in New
Mexico, used only once for a space shutt