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NASA scrubs Orion launch; will try again Friday

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop Bill Ingalls AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA’s new Orion spacecraft will have to wait another day to fly.

Wind gusts and a sticky rocket valve forced the Cape Canaveral launch team to call off Thursday’s attempt to send Orion into orbit on its first-ever test flight.

NASA promised to try again Friday.

Orion is how NASA hopes to one day send astronauts to Mars. This inaugural flight, while just 4 1/2  hours, will send the unmanned capsule 3,600 miles into space.

High winds twice halted Thursday morning’s countdown with less than four minutes remaining. Then a valve in the unmanned Delta IV (four) rocket malfunctioned at the three-minute mark. Launch controllers scrambled to check

This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 6:38 AM with the headline "NASA scrubs Orion launch; will try again Friday."

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