Endeavour's final journey delayed due to weather

Bad weather has forced NASA to postpone the space shuttle Endeavour's final journey to California, where the now-retired spacecraft will be put on display.

NASA had planned for the shuttle's ferry flight atop a 747 carrier aircraft to begin on Monday. Endeavour will now take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at sunrise Tuesday.

Several stops and flyovers are scheduled as the shuttle, attached to the modified plane, makes a four-day trip to the California Science Center. Endeavour is the second of NASA's three retired shuttles to head to a museum.

After its departure, Endeavour will fly low over the beaches of Cape Canaveral, then head west to NASA facilities in Mississippi and New Orleans.

As it arrives over the Texas Gulf Coast area, the shuttle will fly above Houston, home of NASA's Mission Control, before landing at Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center.

Endeavour will continue its journey on Wednesday, stopping to refuel in El Paso, Tex., and then flying over NASA facilities in New Mexico and California.

On Thursday, the shuttle will fly over various landmarks in California before landing at the airport.

NASA said that some flyovers and stopovers could be delayed or cancelled depending on the weather.

Endeavour will eventually embark on the final leg of its journey on land, travelling through the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles on a 19-kilometre trek from the airport to the California Science Center, where it will be on display beginning Oct. 30.

NASA is encouraging social media users to share their Endeavour sightings using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, the shuttle's orbiter vehicle designation.

Endeavour's retirement comes after 20 years of service to the space agency. It was originally built to replace the space shuttle Challenger, which was destroyed mid-flight in 1986, killing all seven crew members on board.

Over its career, Endeavour has completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit and orbited Earth 4,671 times while traveling 197,761,262 kilometres.

The shuttle completed its final mission to the International Space Station in May 2011.