Posted: Sat, Jul 7, 2007, 8:01 AM ET (1201 GMT)
The launch of NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt has been delayed again, this time to mid-July, because of delays getting tracking assets in place to monitor the launch. NASA initially announced Friday that the launch would be postponed one day, to Monday, because of problems with a tracking aircraft as well as weather conditions in Florida that had been delaying fueling of the Delta 2 rocket that will launch Dawn. Late Friday, however, NASA announced that the launch would be further delayed, until July 15, because of continued issues getting either a tracking aircraft or ship into position off the west-central coast of Africa. The launch window for Dawn runs only until July 19; after that the launch must wait until after the August launch of the Phoenix Mars mission. The next launch window would open in September.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  Spaceflight Now launch status center
•  NASA press release