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Shuttle Endeavour's trip to California delayed again

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Endeavour is still in Brevard County Monday afternoon.

Its final flight, a trip to California, was supposed to happen Monday morning, but was postponed because of bad weather along the Gulf Coast.

NASA administrators hoped to get Endeavour in the air Tuesday morning but that plan has been scrapped as well.

A line of thunderstorms stretching from the Gulf of Mexico north is blocking the first leg of the  shuttle's flight to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"The bands of thunderstorms are so thick that it's just not safe to fly through.  Typically when we do ferry flights, in the past they could find a way to maneuver around to the north or south and find a hole.  And in this they just can't seem to any good hole to go through," said NASA spokesmen Michael Curie.

Now it looks like the retired shuttle will start its journey to California on Wednesday morning.

Endeavour is sitting atop the modified 747 that will carry take the shuttle to California.

NASA administrators are considering moving the shuttle back into the mate/de-mate facility overnight to offer some protection as the space agency waits for the weather to clear.

The shuttle will travel to Los Angeles International Airport and then be taken to its new home at the California Science Center.

NASA was originally going to keep the shuttle for more than a day at an airfield near the Johnson Space Center and do low fly-overs at other points of interest along the way.

Those plans are all being re-examined.