Posted: Mon, Sep 24, 2007, 2:11 PM ET (1811 GMT)
NASA announced Monday that the launch of a mission to the main asteroid belt will be delayed a day after weather hampered launch preparations. The Dawn mission, which had been scheduled for launch Wednesday on a Delta 2 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, will now launch between 7:20 and 7:49 am EDT (1120 and 1149 GMT) Thursday. The launch was postponed after weather conditions Sunday prevented workers from fueling the rocket's second stage, delaying launch preparations. Once launched, Dawn will fly to the main asteroid belt and visit the large asteroids Ceres and Vesta. The launch had been scheduled for earlier this summer, but was postponed by a number of problems, and the launch team stood down in July so that NASA could focus on the time-critical August launch of the Phoenix mission to Mars.
