Updated: Wed, Aug 1, 2001, 3:17 PM ET (1917 GMT)
Originally Posted: Wed, Aug 1, 2001, 8:02 AM ET (1202 GMT)
Clouds kept NASA's Genesis spacecraft on the ground for at least one more day Wednesday, hours after officials cleared the spacecraft for launch. The 12:31 pm EDT launch attempt of the Delta 2 was scrubbed when thick clouds remained over the launch site, violating launch weather criteria. NASA is tentatively planning to attempt another launch Thursday, but poor weather currently forecast for then could delay the launch again until Friday. The scrub came several hours after an early morning meeting where project officials concluded that there are no problems with power converter hardware on the spacecraft. The launch was delayed two days to test that hardware after similar power converters in another spacecraft failed a radiation exposure test in Paris. Once launched, Genesis will travel to the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, where it will spend more than two years collecting samples of the solar wind that will be returned to Earth for study in 2004.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now mission status center
•  Genesis mission web site