News In Brief

Suttle Columbia to orbit extra day if weather holds

Scientists whose experiments are being carried out on the space shuttle Columbia were planning Sunday how to use their extra day in space. NASA extended the flight by a day, contingent upon good weather at the landing site in the California desert.

US and European Space Agency officials said Saturday the mission was being extended to next Thursday to allow for more scientific research in the European-built Spacelab research laboratory carried by Columbia.

Spacelab contains 73 experiments from 14 countries.

Several experiment-related equipment problems have developed, but mission officials said yesterday they considered Spacelab-1 a success.