After low clouds kept shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven from making their much-anticipated return to Earth, NASA vowed it had plenty of options for landing early Tuesday -- in Florida, California and even New Mexico.

"We're going to land one way or another, one place or another, and all we're talking about is where," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said after Monday's landing was waved off.

The first of several landing opportunities is scheduled for just after 5 a.m. EDT Tuesday in Florida. Two alternate landing sites also have been activated -- Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

NASA's options are as follows:

First at 5:07 a.m. Eastern at Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Second at 6:39 a.m. Eastern at White Sands in New Mexico

Third at 6:43 a.m. Eastern at Kennedy

Fourth at 8:12 a.m. Eastern at Edwards Air Force Base in California

Fifth at 8:13 a.m. Eastern at White Sands

Sixth at 9:47 a.m. Eastern at Edwards

Griffin said "there's no agony" about Monday's postponement. He said the decision to put off Discovery's return until Tuesday came from chief astronaut Kent Rominger, who was flying the shuttle training aircraft through the cloudy sky over Kennedy.

A little more than an hour before any landing, the orbiter needs a three-minute rocket burn to slow the craft down so it will fall back into the atmosphere.

Discovery returned NASA to manned flight July 26. Since then, the crew has resupplied the international space station and changed out a faulty gyroscope.

The crew has also used cameras and laser devices on robot arms to examine nearly every inch of the craft for damage. That was in response to some debris lost from the external fuel tank during launch, as well as the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Also during this mission, an astronaut was lowered under the orbiter for an unprecedented in-flight repair. Stephen Robinson removed some troublesome gap filler between some thermal tiles.

Edwards Greeted Shuttle 49 Times

Of the 111 shuttles that have landed since 1981, 49 came in at Edwards and 61 touched down in Florida. The last time a shuttle touched down at Edwards was in June 2002, when Endeavour came to rest at Edwards.

One landed at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range in 1982. The abrasive gypsum sand runway contaminated Columbia's engines and the damage required extensive repairs.