Cape Canaveral, Florida - Nasa scrapped a liftoff for the US space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew on Tuesday, announcing a 24-hour delay due to poor weather around the launch site.
The US space agency called off the launch minutes before the shuttle was due to blast off toward the orbiting International Space Station and said it would make another attempt on Wednesday at 1:10am (0510 GMT).
"We have a scrub for the day," said launch director Pete Nickolenko. "Unfortunately, the local weather has not cooperated."
Cloud formations, rain and storms were within a 36-kilometre radius of launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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The weather unexpectedly worsened hours before the liftoff. It cleared minutes before takeoff - but too late to give the launch a green light.
The astronauts were onboard, along with a new bedroom, a treadmill, a freezer, food and other supplies Discovery is set to deliver during its 13-day mission.
It will also be dropping off the newest ISS resident - US astronaut Nicole Stott.
The delay was a reminder of the turbulence that surrounded the previous shuttle mission, in July, which was been postponed five times by weather woes and technical glitches.
Forecasters saw a 70 percent chance of favourable weather on Wednesday, dropping to 60 percent on Thursday.
Stott will be taking over from engineer and fellow American Tim Kopra, who has been aboard the ISS since July and is returning to Earth with Discovery.
The shuttle crew, led by Commander Rick Sturckow, will be delivering 6,8 tonnes of cargo transported in a pressurised module called Leonardo that was built by the Italian space agency.
Two astronauts from the team are scheduled to conduct three spacewalks of six and a half hours each during the mission, which is the fourth of five planned for the shuttle this year.
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