Posted: Tue, Aug 7, 2001, 12:25 PM ET (1625 GMT)
NASA will attempt to launch the Genesis space science spacecraft Wednesday afternoon after technical concerns and poor weather delayed several launch attempts last week. The launch of the Delta 2 carrying Genesis was rescheduled on Monday for 12:14 pm EDT (1614 GMT) Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. The Wednesday launch opportunity opened after the successful launch Monday of a Titan 4. If Wednesday's launch is delayed NASA will likely postpone the launch until after Thursday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The launch was originally scheduled for Monday, July 30, but was delayed two days because of concerns regarding a power converter on the spacecraft, and then three days because of weather before NASA had to turn the launch range over to the Air Force for the Titan launch. Once launched, Genesis will travel to the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, where it will spend more than two years collecting samples of the solar wind that will be returned to Earth for study in 2004.

Related Links:

•  NASA press release
•  Genesis mission web site