Weather Delays Mars Probe Launch
NASA said it would try again today to launch the first of three probes bound for Mars this year after bad weather thwarted its first attempt.
Mars Global Surveyor was poised for blastoff Wednesday afternoon, but gusty upper level winds halted the countdown with just over one minute to go. Thick clouds and showers at Cape Canaveral Air Station had earlier postponed the launch by about an hour.
Officials at the space agency said they had rescheduled the liftoff attempt for noon EST today, with a second opportunity occurring at 1:05 p.m. EST.
Mars Global Surveyor was designed and built in record time to replace NASA’s $1-billion Mars Observer probe, which spun out of control just before it was to enter the planet’s orbit in 1993.
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