Posted: Wed, Jul 6, 2005, 8:40 AM ET (1240 GMT)
Poor weather has delayed the launch an astronomy satellite for at least two days, the Japanese space agency JAXA announced. The M-5 rocket was scheduled to lift off from the Uchinoura Space Center early Wednesday and place the Astro-E2 satellite into orbit. However, unspecified poor weather has delayed the launch until Friday; JAXA officials said there was no chance that weather conditions would improve in time to permit a launch Thursday. Astro-E2 carries a number of x-ray instruments designed to study astronomical phenomena like black holes. The satellite is a replacement for Astro-E, which was lost in a launch failure in 2000.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  JAXA news release