spacetoday.net: Weather delays launch of Japanese asteroid mission

Posted: Fri, Nov 28, 2014, 11:22 AM ET (1622 GMT)
Hayabusa-2 illustration (JAXA)

The Japanese space agency JAXA said Friday it was delaying the launch of its latest asteroid mission by a day due to a forecast of poor weather. The launch of the H-2A rocker from the the Tanegashima Space Center, which was scheduled for 11:24 pm EST Saturday (0424 GMT, 1:24 pm local time Sunday), has been postponed at least a day because forecasts called for cloudy conditions with a freezing layer that could trigger lightning during launch. The H-2A is carrying Hayabusa-2, Japan's second mission to an asteroid. The spacecraft will travel to the asteroid 1993 JU3, arriving in mid-2018 to collect samples before returning to Earth in 2020.