SUMMARY: The space shuttle Discovery's landing has been pushed back to Tuesday because of low clouds above Florida's Cape Canaveral on Monday. All three primary landing sites will be activated on Tuesday, so the shuttle can potentially land at Cape Canaveral, Edwards Air Force Base in California, or White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Weather forecasters are expecting similar weather in Florida for Tuesday, so it's likely Discovery will have to use an alternative site. The first landing attempt will be at 0907 UTC (5:07 am EDT).

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Back in the early 80's, the runway at Auckland International Airport in New Zealand was upgraded so it could be an alternate for emergency shuttle landings. It's never been used for that purpose.

I believe there are numerous similar runways around the globe that are long enough, and have the capability to land a shuttle.

If the weather is bad at all three US sites, there are others.....but the cost of piggybacking the shuttle back to KSC would be a bit pricey!!

Cheers,
Phillippa

yeh it is my understanding that they are trying to land the shuttle at kennedy unless its an absolute neccesity to land elsewhere, in which case there are a number of options..

the fact that the shuttles are gournded and this is an important test flight for the shuttle fleet means there will be massive testing and investigation going on when the shuttle gets back, so they want it in florida for that..

i stayed up so late last night waiting for that thing to land.. i have a feeling im gonna end up doing that again.. damn weather better hold up...