Article Posted on : - Mar 01, 2011

Artist's concept of the Glory spacecraft. A NASA photo

CALIFORNIA (BNS): NASA, which had put off the Glory satellite launch last week, is planning to reschedule the mission for March 4.

Orbital Sciences and NASA engineers are making good progress in troubleshooting the ground support equipment issue that caused the postponement of the Glory launch on February 23.

Launch will be no earlier than March 4, the space agency said.

Last minute technical glitch had led to the postponement of the Earth observation satellite's launch from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California last week.

During the final 15 minutes before the scheduled launch, the vehicle interface control console, a ground interface with Orbital Sciences' Taurus XL rocket, gave an unexpected reading, NASA had said.

The next launch on Feb 25 was temporarily suspended as engineers continued to troubleshoot the malfunction.

NASA is launching the Glory mission to improve its understanding of how the Sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate.

The satellite data from the mission will help scientists to improve the ability to predict Earth's future environment and to distinguish human-induced climate change from natural climate variability.