Science and Health

NASA delays launch of Earth-orbiting satellite

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-24 15:09

LOS ANGELES - NASA announced on Wednesday that it has postponed the launch of its Glory Mission spacecraft from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base due to technical problems.

During the final 15 minutes before Wednesday's scheduled launch of 5:09 am EST, the vehicle interface control console, a ground interface with Orbital Sciences' Taurus XL rocket, gave an unexpected reading, NASA said in a press release.

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The cause and potential effect of the reading was not fully understood, according to the release.

With a 48-second available launch window, there was insufficient time to analyze the issue causing the launch to be postponed, NASA said.

It said members of the Taurus team are troubleshooting the issue.

The next launch attempt is no earlier than Thursday, Feb 24, at 5:09 am EST, NASA said.

Glory will send back data to help scientists improve their ability to predict Earth's future environment and to distinguish human-induced climate change from natural climate variability, NASA scientists said.

The 434-million-dollar mission is managed by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.