The offshore storms prompted NASA to skip the morning's first landing attempt at Kennedy Space Center. Flight controllers had yet to call it a day, however, and were considering additional landing attempts on both the country's coasts.
"Appreciate your patience," Mission Control told commander Scott Altman. "We're keeping our options open."
"Understand," radioed Altman. "We will hold right where we are."
That was further than the astronauts got Friday, when storms directly over the Florida landing site kept them in orbit.
Altman and his six crewmates are trying to wind up their Hubble repair mission, which began 12 days ago. It was NASA's last visit to the 19-year-old observatory. The $1 billion overhaul should keep the telescope working for another five to 10 years.
Unlike the day before, NASA had the option Saturday of sending Atlantis to the backup landing site in Southern California.
The weather at Edwards Air Force Base is expected to be good all weekend, but it takes time and money
- close to $2 million - to ferry a shuttle cross-country. There was still a possibility Mission Control might hold out for a Sunday landing at Kennedy, given an improved weather forecast.
Atlantis has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday.
The mission culminated earlier this week with the release of Hubble, freshly restored and considered at its scientific peak thanks to the astronauts' effort. In five back-to-back spacewalks, they gave the observatory new science instruments and fixed two others, and replaced batteries, gyroscopes and other aging parts.
