On the south side of San Antonio, the massive KC-135 Stratotanker refueling tankers line up outside of Boeing Global Services & Support’s repair facility awaiting a full-body makeover. Inside Building 375, one of the world’s largest freestanding hangars, the airplanes get stripped down to their shells and teams of employees rebuild them in eight stages.

“At any time, we have about 50 airplanes on the ground here,” said Kevin Devine, Boeing’s site leader.

The operation at Port San Antonio, the former Kelly Air Force Base, plays an important role in the city’s $3.8 billion aerospace industry, which employs more than 9,500 workers, according to a 2007 city study. Now, it’s hoping to get bigger.

At the San Antonio Boeing site, workers perform maintenance, modifications, inspections and other work on C-17 Globemaster and C-130 cargo planes and on KC-135 and KC-10 refueling tankers. Boeing is bidding again for KC-10 contract work with the Air Force, which plans to award a new contract by the end of September, Devine said.

In 2010, the site expects to get part of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner work, which could add hundreds of additional employees to its work force of 1,700, Devine said.

“We do expect to see airplanes next year. We’re always looking to expand the business on the platforms we currently work on.” he said.

Workers at the site will install and change electrical equipment on the 787, do wiring and power panels, and work on mechanical equipment and other components.

Late Tuesday afternoon, launch officials stopped the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the scheduled early Wednesday morning flight to the international space station. A new launch date was not yet set right away.

NASA spokesman Allard Beutel says engineers were trying to open and shut the fill-and-drain valve in Discovery’s engine compartment when it looked to be broken. The exact condition of the valve is not yet known.

Thunderstorms prevented Discovery Space Shuttle from blasting off early Tuesday.

Discovery is bound for the international space station. It will haul up thousands of pounds of supplies, including six mice for a bone experiment and a treadmill named for Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert.

NASA has until the end of August to launch Discovery and its seven astronauts. Otherwise, the mission will slide into October because other countries are scheduled to launch their spacecraft.

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All 13 people on board were killed when the plane crashed while approaching the rugged terrain during a bad weather. The De Havilland Twin Otter 300 plane was supposed to land at an airport near the country’s Kokoda Track, a famous mountainous trail. The plane’s crew radioed air traffic controllers as it was approaching the airstrip, but the aircraft never landed, said Allen Tyson, a spokesman for Airlines PNG.

An Australian tour company said eight Australian tourists and a tour guide were on the plane, along with a local tour guide.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said one Japanese citizen and three Papua New Guineans were also aboard. He said the aircraft had an emergency locator beacon, but no signal had been received.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the wreckage was located at an altitude of 5,500 feet (1,676 meters) and weather conditions were deteriorating, making searchers’ attempts to reach the aircraft by helicopter and on foot very difficult.

Travelers choosing Lufthansa could pick up compensation for bad weather at their vacation destination.

Sunshine-seeking travelers whose scheduled trips are spoilt by wet weather will be able to claim return under a new scheme introduced by Germany airline Lufthansa in a bid to head off the gray clouds settling over the aviation industry.

Under the “sunshine insurance” scheme, passengers who book flights to any of 36 destinations on offer will be entitled to €20 ($28.8) per day up to a maximum of €200 ($288) for every day of rain.

To take advantage of the offer, passengers must book before August 18 to travel in either September or October. They will be entitled to claim for every day in which at least 5mm of rain falls at their destination according to the German weather Web site wetteronline.de.

While many of the destinations on the list are sun-drenched locations on the Mediterranean or in the Middle East, more discerning travelers looking to claim a discount on their trip may choose Bilbao, on Spain’s wet and windy northern coast, or U.S. cities including Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

Lufthansa’s offer comes less than a week after the airline said it expected to endure a difficult time for the rest of 2009 after reporting an 88 percent drop in second quarter profits to €40 million ($56 million), amid volatile fuel prices and a slump in passenger numbers.

The airline is not the first to offer “sunshine insurance.” Last month two French travel agencies, Pierre et Vacances and FranceLoc, offered vacationers a partial refund if they suffered four days of rain in any one week.

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