By Xinhua
Washington : NASA managers decided to skip Thursday's two landing opportunities for shuttle Atlantis. Now hopes turn to Friday's opportunities, said NASA TV.
    Rain showers and a low cloud ceilings in the vicinity of Kennedy Space Center in Florida forced flight controllers to wave off both opportunities on Thursday.
    "We looked as long and hard as we think is reasonable and the rain showers and (cloud) ceilings are going to keep us from making it into Florida today," NASA's mission control center radioed Atlantis' seven astronauts.
    Now the Atlantis crew will get an extra day in space because of the persistent poor weather. The shuttle has four landing opportunities available Friday, with the first at 2:16 p.m. EDT (1826 GMT) and the second at 3:51 p.m. EDT (1951 GMT) at KSC, according to NASA mission control center.
    If Florida weather does not cooperate on Friday, two opportunities are available at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Opportunities are also available Saturday, said NASA.