Bad weather in Spain could delay shuttle Endeavour's launch

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ After almost two weeks of delay, space shuttle Endeavour was patched and poised to blast off Friday night, although bad weather 4,000 miles away in Spain threatened to interfere.

The launch was scheduled for 8:15 p.m. EST.

Endeavour's flight to the international space station had been postponed by a leaking oxygen lined and a damaged robot arm. The damage was caused by workers who accidentally rammed a platform into the 50-foot robot arm.

The robot arm is needed to lift a 14-ton girder from the payload bay for installation on the space station.

Besides performing construction work, the shuttle astronauts will deliver a fresh three-man crew to the space station and bring back the one American and two Russians who have been on board since early June. Friday was their 170th day in orbit.

Forecasters said there was an 80 percent chance of good launch weather, with gusty wind the main concern. But the outlook was much worse at the two emergency landing sites in Spain, where rain, thick clouds and turbulence were expected throughout the weekend.

At least one overseas landing site must have acceptable weather for the launch to proceed.

A Moroccan air base that used to serve as an emergency landing site has not been considered for months because of security concerns.

NASA's last countdown was halted Nov. 10 at the two-hour mark because of a leak in the astronauts' oxygen supply. A cracked hose was replaced. The robot-arm damage occurred while workers were hunting for the leak.