After dealing with a variety of delays including mechanical issues, NASAscrubbed the launch of the Orion capsule Thursday morning and scheduled another attempt in less than 24 hours.The original 7:05 a.m. launch was delayed when a stray boat was spotted in the launch zone, according to Florida Today. Strong winds then delayed new launch times at 7:17 and 7:55 a.m., the newspaper reported. Then, 30 minutes later, booster valves on the Delta IV rocket failed to close properly, NASA said.
NASA said the launch is rescheduled for 7:05 a.m. Friday, with a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather. Although the launch of Orion’s first unmanned flight test had to be cancelled Thursday, NASA said the information gathered during the operations was useful.”The spacecraft worked extremely well,” said Mike Hawes of Lockheed Martin, the main contractor for the project. “The systems did just like the simulators told us they’d do.”Orion is the prototype for a manned ship that will carry astronauts into space, with future plans including missions to an asteroid and Mars. The currentmission calls for Orion to fly about 3,600 miles above Earth to gather safety data for manned missions.
