A technical issue Wednesday morning prompted NASA to scrub the planned launch of the Glory spacecraft.
Glory was scheduled to launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in order to gather more data about sun- and climate-influencing particles called aerosols.
The launch has been delayed for at least 24 hours because of a problem with a command circuit. "Trouble shooting of the problem continues," NASA said in a statement. "Good weather is forecast for tomorrow at launch time."
The next window for launch is Thursday at 5:09am Eastern time.
Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate, NASA said. These aerosols and solar energy influence how much energy enters and exits the Earth's atmosphere. The Glory mission is intended to provide an accurate measurement of this energy in order to anticipate future changes to our climate and how they may affect human life.
NASA is also prepping for the Thursday launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On Wednesday morning, NASA gave Discovery final clearance for the Thursday liftoff. It will travel to the International Space Station after several months of delays.
Update: NASA's Glory spacecraft launched on March 4, but ultimately failed to reach orbit.