The space shuttle Endeavour will land at Edwards Air Force Base in eastern Kern County at about 1:25 p.m. today, NASA Flight controllers decided this morning.

With weather forecasts in Florida indicating unfavorable conditions for a landing at Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials elected to press ahead with a touchdown at Edwards.

No arrangements have been made by NASA for a rare public viewing of the landing.

NASA’s first choice for a landing site is always Kennedy, where shuttle technicians can immediately start readying the huge space glider for its next mission.

When poor weather in Florida forces a landing at Edwards, it’s expensive and time-consuming to ferry the orbiter back to the Kennedy Space Center -- piggy-back style -- atop a modified Boeing 747.

Detours to the landing site at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards add approximately $1.7 million to the cost of the mission.

Nevertheless, Kern County has proved to be an important and frequent landing site for America’s shuttle astronauts. More than 50 space shuttle missions have touched down in California’s Mojave Desert.