Posted: Mon, Aug 2, 2004, 8:12 AM ET (1212 GMT)
The launch of NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury was delayed by 24 hours early Monday because of weather. The spacecraft was scheduled to lift off atop a Delta 2 from Cape Canaveral at 2:16 am EDT (0616 GMT), but the launch was scrubbed because of the potential of lightning from clouds in the area associated with a tropical storm. The launch has been rescheduled for the same time Tuesday; the forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather. MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) is NASA's first Mercury orbiter mission and only the second spacecraft to travel to the planet. MESSENGER will enter orbit around the innermost planet in March 2011 after several flybys of the Earth and Venus as well as Mercury.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Reuters article
•  AP article
•  BBC article
•  NASA/KSC press release