Friday's scheduled launch of NASA 's Phoenix Mars Lander has been postponed 24 hours duo to unfavorable weather, NASA announced Tuesday at its website.
The two available launch times on Saturday, Aug. 4, are 5:26 a. m. EDT (0926 GMT) and 6:02 a.m. EDT (1002 GMT), according to Phoenix mission managers. A Delta 2 rocket will send the Mars lander into space.
Due to forecast for severe weather around the Kennedy Space Center launch pad in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, fueling of the second stage of the rocket will not be completed. Although fueling is expected to be finished Wednesday morning, there is insufficient contingency time in the schedule to move forward with the launch on Friday.
After being launched, Phoenix will have a long trip and land on Mars next spring. Instead of roving to hills or craters, Phoenix will claw down into the icy soil of the Red Planet's northern plains.
The robot will investigate whether frozen water near the Martian surface might periodically melt enough to sustain a livable environment for microbes.
Source: Xinhua
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