Posted: Mon, Nov 8, 2004, 8:20 PM ET (0120 GMT)
NASA announced late Monday that is has delayed Tuesday's scheduled launch of a technology demonstration satellite to review engineering data about the spacecraft. The DART spacecraft was scheduled to launch Tuesday on a Pegasus XL off the coast from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. In a brief statement NASA said that the launch had been delayed to reevaluate a review of the "projected loads data", the effect the g-forces of launch will have on the spacecraft. No new launch date has been announced. DART was scheduled to launch two weeks ago, only to be delayed by weather and a glitch with an orbiting spacecraft that will be used in DART's mission; a launch attempt last week was postponed because of solar activity and a launch range conflict. DART (Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology) is designed to rendezvous with an existing low Earth orbit satellite, MUBLCOM, using only the sensors and computers on the spacecraft itself.
