spacetoday.net: High winds delay Rockot launch

Posted: Sat, Mar 16, 2002, 12:06 PM ET (1706 GMT)
GRAE satellite illustration (NASA)

High winds led Russian officials to postpone the launch Saturday of the Rockot booster carrying two NASA earth science satellites. The Rockot was scheduled to lift off Saturday at 4:23 am EST (0923 GMT) and place the two Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft into polar orbit. However, high winds forced the launch scrub a half-hour before the scheduled liftoff time. The launch has been rescheduled for the same time on Sunday. GRAE is a joint project of NASA and the German space agency DLR to accurately map the Earth's gravity field and shifting water masses. The launch is provided by Eurockot, a German-Russian joint venture that markets the Rockot booster, formerly the SS-19 ICBM, for Western launches.