spacetoday.net: CALIPSO/CloudSat launch scrubbed

Updated: Sat, Apr 22, 2006, 10:43 AM ET (1443 GMT)
Originally Posted: Fri, Apr 21, 2006, 12:03 PM ET (1603 GMT)
CloudSat and CALIPSO illustration (NASA)

The launch of two Earth sciences spacecraft was scrubbed early Friday because of a communications problem. A Delta 2 was scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to place the CALIPSO and CloudSat spacecraft into orbit. The launch was scrubbed 48 seconds before liftoff, however, when primary and secondary communications links between launch controllers at Vandenberg and a mission control center in France failed and could not be restored. The launch was originally rescheduled for Saturday morning, then delayed again to no earlier than Sunday because a tracking aircraft was unavailable for a Saturday launch attempt. The two spacecraft are designed to study the role of clouds in shaping the planet's climate. CALIPSO, a joint project of NASA and the French space agency CNES, carries a lidar and camera to study clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere; CloudSat has a radar designed to provide a three-dimensional map of cloud cover.