Shuttle ferry delayed again.

Space shuttle Discovery was carefully placed atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier during mating operations in preparation for its ferry flight from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA photo / Tony Landis)

Dynamic weather over the southern and eastern portions of the United States will keep space shuttle Discovery at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., at least through Saturday. NASA ferry flight managers and flight crews are now looking to begin the 2,500-mile cross-country trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than early Sunday morning, Sept. 20.

Managers decided Friday that a slow-moving low-pressure weather system over northeast Texas that has been influencing weather across the southeast was too dynamic and unstable to try to begin the flight Saturday. They will meet again with flight crews and the weather team Saturday at NASA Dryden to discuss a possible Sunday morning departure and decide the best route to get Discovery back to Kennedy within two days, weather permitting.