Space shuttle Discovery's return delayed

Cloudy skies over Florida's Kennedy Space Center will keep the space shuttle Discovery in orbit for at least an extra day.

Weather caused NASA to skip both scheduled landing windows for Discovery on Monday morning. The next opportunity to land the shuttle comes at 7:33 a.m. ET Tuesday, shortly after sunrise.

Weather forecasts call for better conditions for Tuesday, but if the clouds persist, Discovery will attempt to land at the backup landing site in Southern California.

The overcast weather prompted mission control to skip a landing planned for 8:23 a.m. ET in favour of its next opportunity to land at 10:23 a.m. ET.

The skies cleared a little before the second landing window, but scattered showers prompted Mission Control to call off a Monday landing.

Rain drenched the space centre overnight, but the precipitation had moved offshore. However, thick clouds led to the delay.

The eruption of the volcano in Iceland is not interfering with Discovery's landing.

The shuttle has enough supplies to remain in space until Wednesday.

The shuttle's two-week mission included droppingscience experiments and equipment at the International Space Station. The shuttle astronauts performed three spacewalks to hook up a new tank of ammonia coolant for the orbiting stations.

Discovery undocked from the space station on Saturday. Discovery's next and final mission is scheduled for September.