Weather Forces Another Delay in Atlas Launch

The threat of severe thunderstorms forced another postponement Sunday of the launch of a newly repaired Atlas rocket with a government satellite aboard.

The first launch attempt, on Friday, was called off because of a helium leak, but the part that caused the problem has been replaced, officials said.

“There’s nothing wrong with the vehicle. There’s nothing wrong with the payload,” NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said Sunday. “But the weather is just going to get worse and worse.”

The launch was rescheduled for 3:26 p.m. EDT today, but hopes were not high for a blastoff because the weather outlook appeared to be about the same.

Friday’s launch was called off less than an hour before scheduled liftoff after a liquid helium vent duct used for engine cooling somehow separated, said General Dynamics Corp. spokesman Jack Isabel. As a precaution, all four vent ducts were replaced Saturday, he said.

“The scrub that we had was disappointing, but we have confidence now,” Isabel said. “We’re ready to attempt another launch.”

The Atlas 1 rocket, making its commercial debut, was to boost the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite into an elliptical orbit.

The $189-million satellite, a joint program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Department, holds 24 chemical-filled canisters that will be ejected at various altitudes over the next year. Once released, barium, lithium and other chemicals will be ionized by the sun’s ultraviolet rays, creating glowing clouds about 60 miles in diameter.

The clouds will spread along Earth’s magnetic field lines, allowing scientists to see the normally invisible charged particles of the ionosphere and magnetosphere.

The two-ton satellite was to have been deployed in 1987 from space shuttle Challenger, but the mission was put on hold after the Challenger disaster in 1986.