Posted: Tue, Dec 17, 2002, 8:07 PM ET (0107 GMT)
For the third consecutive day weather delayed the launch of a Titan 2 booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California while a technical problem has pushed back a Delta 2 launch from the same site until next month. The Titan 2 was scheduled to lift off early Tuesday to place Coriolis, a military research spacecraft, into orbit, but poor weather forced controllers to scrub the launch for the third day in a row. Tuesday was to be the last chance to launch the Titan 2 until at least next week because a Delta 2 was scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg late Thursday afternoon. However, NASA announced on Tuesday that the launch had been delayed until at least January 8 when technicians discovered a problem with an ordinance box that is part of a system to jettison the payload fairing during launch. The Delta 2 is carrying two NASA spacecraft, the ICESat Earth observation spacecraft and the CHIPSat space science mission. With the Delta launch delayed, another Titan launch attempt is scheduled for Wednesday at 9:18 am EST (1418 GMT). Weather conditions are forecast to improve, with only a 30 percent chance of unacceptable weather.
