CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Wind gusts and sluggish fuel valves conspired to keep NASA's new Orion spacecraft on the launch pad Thursday, delaying a crucial test flight meant to revitalize human exploration.
NASA aimed for another shot Friday morning as tens of thousands of disappointed and weary launch guests hustled out. The weather report was iffy — forecasters expected higher winds, clouds and rain — but managers were optimistic the wind direction would shift in their favor.
United Launch Alliance's Dan Collins, who's in charge of the unmanned Delta IV rocket, said he was confident the valve trouble, seen before on a previous mission, could be quickly overcome.
“The team was absolutely on their game, listening to everything the rocket was telling us, and it ultimately told us it wasn't ready to go today,” Collins told reporters. “And so we'll go make sure we've got a happy rocket ... and send Orion off to a very, very successful test flight.”
Orion is how NASA hopes to send astronauts on round trips to Mars in the decades ahead. This inaugural flight, while just 4 1⁄2 hours, will send the unmanned capsule 3,600 miles into space.
It's the first attempt to send a spacecraft capable of carrying humans beyond a couple hundred miles of Earth since the Apollo moon program.
NASA's new countdown clock — making its debut alongside Orion — got a workout as problem after problem cropped up in the final four minutes Thursday.
The initial launch was delayed by excessive wind and a cargo ship believed to be in the launch-danger zone; it later turned out the ship was in a safe spot. Then the valve trouble cropped up in the rocket's first-stage boosters.
“It was a roller coaster: We're going, we're not going,” said Sarah McNulty, a space educator who was helping NASA escort the several-hundred news media on hand.
An estimated 27,000 guests gathered for the historic send-off — roads leading into Kennedy Space Center were packed well before dawn — and the atmosphere was reminiscent of the shuttle-flying days. “Go Orion!!” urged a hotel billboard.
