spacetoday.net: Glory launch scrubbed

Updated: Wed, Feb 23, 2011, 9:20 PM ET (0220 GMT)
Originally Posted: Wed, Feb 23, 2011, 7:52 AM ET (1252 GMT)
Glory illustration (NASA)

The launch of a NASA earth sciences satellite on a Taurus XL was scrubbed early Wednesday because of a technical glitch. The Taurus XL was scheduled to launch at 5:09 am EST (1009 GMT) Wednesday and place NASA's Glory satellite into Sun-synchronous orbit. However, the countdown was stopped several minutes before launch because of an issue with a control console that was providing erroneous readings that controllers were not able to understand and resolve in time for the launch. NASA announced later Wednesday that the next launch attempt would be at the same time on Friday. Once in orbit, Glory will track aerosols in the atmosphere as well as solar irradiance to understand how they influence the Earth's climate.