Mars Lander Launch Delayed 24 Hours

NASA announced Tuesday this week's scheduled launch of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket has been postponed 24 hours. The two available launch times on Saturday, August 4 are 5:26:34 am, and 6:02:59 am EDT.

Due to a forecast for severe weather around the Kennedy Space Center launch pad in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, fueling of the second stage will not be completed. Although fueling is expected to be finished Wednesday morning, NASA says there isn't enough breathing room for contingency time in the schedule to move forward with the launch on Friday.

The $386 million Phoenix mission will attempt to drill the surface of the Martian polar region, looking for signs of water and life. First, however, it must complete a successful launch... and survive its 10-month journey to the red planet.

Then, it must land and avoid shutting off its rocket engines 130 feet above the ground, like 1999's Mars Polar Lander did. The resulting crash destroyed that probe, and halted NASA's 2001 Mars Surveyor program.

In the hopes the new probe will be a success, it has been named Phoenix... after the mythical bird which dies in a fire, but is reborn from the ashes. But there will be nothing hot about the existence of this Phoenix -- the probe is only expected to operate about five months, before it succumbs to temperatures of minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/phoenix