"The mission management team has decided to keep Atlantis 24 more hours in orbit," a National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman said.

The news came after the crew successfully installed the International Space Station's first addition in nearly four years.

The shuttle's camera detected a small, unidentified object floating next to the orbiter on Tuesday, prompting officials to call for a visual inspection, over fears the object could have damaged the shuttle's heat shield.

NASA has strived to avoid damage to the orbiter's heat shield since a crack in shuttle Columbia's protective skin caused it to disintegrate as it returned to Earth in February 2003, killing seven astronauts.

Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said officials also checked the weather reports in the morning and "the weather forecast at the landing site isn't very favorable for landing in the morning (Wednesday)."

Earlier, a NASA official expressed concern over unfavorable weather conditions forecast for Florida on Wednesday, including strong cross winds and rain showers.

Nonetheless, pilot Chris Ferguson was upbeat about the mission, telling US media early Tuesday: "I think we all, thus far, feel pretty good about the job that we did."

Atlantis is now scheduled to return Thursday with six astronauts from a successful mission to add two power-producing solar arrays to the International Space Station in the first ISS construction work since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003.

News of the delay came on the heels of a scare Monday over a possible chemical leak aboard the International Space Station.

The orbiting laboratory's ventilation system was shut down and the three ISS occupants put on surgical masks and gloves after a foul odor alerted them to a possible leak.

Space station manager Mike Suffredini said the ISS's Russian, German and American crew members reported light smoke and smelled what appeared to be potassium hydroxide, which he said is an irritant but is not life-threatening.

Suffredini later noted at a press conference that the Atlantis mission was complex but succeeded beyond expectations.

He warned, however, that future building missions will be even more difficult and will include tasks never performed in space.

It took two teams of astronauts three spacewalks lasting more than 20 hours to install the new module.

The solar arrays, unfurled Thursday, measure 240 feet (73 meters), and will ultimately provide a quarter of the outpost's power. They will be activated during a Space Shuttle Discovery mission planned for December, doubling the space station's current power capacity.

When it is finished in 2010, the station will be bigger than a five-room house and will weigh approximately 450 tonnes.

It will be equipped with four double solar panels capable of generating 110 kilowatts of electricity, enough to supply roughly 55 middle-class homes.

About 46 kilowatts of that will be used for scientific research, the scope of which will more than triple compared with what is currently available.

Of the 115 flights completed by US space shuttles since April 1981, 18 have been dedicated to the space station.

NASA plans 15 more to finish the project by 2010. At that time, the three remaining orbiters in the US shuttle fleet are scheduled to be decommissioned.

Related Links
Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com

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