Space shuttle Discovery in orbit

The space shuttle Discovery  is spending an extra day in orbit after bad weather forced the U.S. space agency to cancel Monday's landing in the eastern U.S. state of Florida.

NASA had two opportunities to bring the shuttle home, but flight controllers told the crew that low clouds over Florida made conditions "unstable" for the crew to make a final approach to the runway.

NASA says it will have several opportunities on Tuesday, beginning at 0908 UTC, to land the shuttle either at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Edwards Air Force Base in the western U.S. state of California or the White Sands Missile Range in the southwestern U.S. state of New Mexico.

The shuttle has enough supplies to stay safely in orbit until Wednesday.

Discovery has spent the past 13 days in space, resupplying the International Space Station and testing new safety procedures developed since the shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003.