Canaveral Plans New Launch

The space agency, testing its ability to bounce back from adversity, plans to launch a weather satellite Thursday with a Delta rocket, a reliable workhorse of the rocket fleet.

The launching of the unmanned spacecraft--the first from Cape Canaveral since the space shuttle disaster and the failure of a Titan rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California--comes in the midst of what government officials have called a “national space emergency.” The normally low-key affair has attracted as much attention as many of the 24 shuttle missions that preceded the explosion of the Challenger Jan. 28.