spacetoday.net: Winds again delay Delta launch

Posted: Thu, May 12, 2005, 7:09 AM ET (1109 GMT)
Delta 2 launch file photo (Boeing)

For the second straight day high winds have delayed the launch of a weather satellite from California. The Delta 2 was scheduled to lift off Thursday morning, but the launch was postponed Wednesday evening because winds at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California were too high to permit the mobile service tower at the launch site to be retracted. High winds had also forced a similar scrub 24 hours earlier. The launch is now scheduled for Friday at 6:22 am EDT (1022 GMT), with winds forecast to be acceptable for tower retraction on Thursday evening. The rocket will launch the NOAA-N weather satellite into polar orbit. NOAA-N is the latest in a series of Polar Operational Environmental Satellites that complement other weather satellites in geosynchronous orbit, providing atmospheric sounding and other data.