Posted: Fri, Feb 6, 2009, 9:53 PM ET (0253 GMT)
After two days of delays, a Delta 2 rocket successfully launched a weather satellite early Friday. The United Launch Alliance Delta 2 7320 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:22 am EST (1022 GMT) and its payload, the NOAA-N Prime satellite, separated from the upper stage 65 minutes later after entering a polar orbit. The launch of the spacecraft had been previously planned for Wednesday and Thursday; both times technical glitches scrubbed the launch. The spacecraft, renamed NOAA-19 after launch, is the last in a series of polar-orbiting weather satellites dating back over 30 years. A new system, called NPOESS, is scheduled to begin launches in 2013. The spacecraft became infamous earlier in the decade when it suffered two mishaps during its manufacturing, including an infamous incident in 2003 when the spacecraft slipped off a stand and fell to a floor, incurring over $200 million in repair costs.
