Washington - After battling tricky weather conditions off and on all morning, NASA called off a planned Tuesday launch test of the next generation space rocket that is to replace the ageing space shuttle. Engineers were unable to find enough time to launch when clouds were not affecting the Kennedy Space Centre during a four-hour launch window that began at 1200 GMT. NASA said it would evaluate weather conditions for a possible launch Wednesday or later in the week.
NASA kept pushing back the planned launch time throughout the morning, at one point even beginning the final minutes of countdown before being stymied by weather. A passing ship had also prompted a brief pause. Since pieces of the rocket will fall back into the ocean, NASA was being particularly watchful of maritime traffic.
Ares I-X is the first of two new rockets planned by NASA for its Constellation programme with the eventual goal of returning humans to the moon.
Ares I would be used to carry astronauts to low-earth orbit, including to the International Space Station, aboard the next-generation Orion crew capsule. A later, more powerful Ares V rocket is to be developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond.
