NASA Probe Launch Scrubbed

The Thursday launch of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from Florida was scrubbed because of a fueling problem.

NASA is to make another launch attempt Friday if the problem has been resolved. The launch window would extend for two hours beginning at 7:43 a.m. EDT Friday.

The 2.4-ton, $450-million NASA probe will search for signs of water and landing sites on Mars in unprecedented detail from the top of the Martian atmosphere to more than a half-mile beneath its reddish-hued surface. The mission is scheduled to last five years. Then the probe will make the 310 million mile journey back to Earth.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a weather satellite, a geological explorer, a communications satellite and an exploration pathfinder hunting for landing sites of the future, said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. It has got a critical strategic role.

In addition to taking photographs, the probe will have ground-penetrating radar look for layers of rock, ice and water beneath Mars’ surface and a spectrometer will identify minerals that could indicate the presence of water.