Will Try Again Wednesday

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 01.17.06 1523 EST: In a move that didn't even surprise the commentators at CNN, after six delays in the countdown NASA has finally scrubbed the planned launch Tuesday of the New Horizons probe. Strong winds forced the cancellation.

NASA will try again Wednesday to launch the plutonium-powered Pluto probe... although high winds are also forecast then, as well. NASA has until February 2 to launch the probe during the optimal launch window, after which the probe will not be in position to slingshot off Jupiter's gravitational field to cut two years off the planned trip to the farthest reaches of our galaxy.

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 01.17.06 1325 EST: Conditions are marginal for Tuesday's launch of NASA's New Horizons probe -- the first manmade object sent to explore Pluto, en route to the furthest reaches of our galaxy. Titusville is under a wind advisory, with gusts of 38 mph, according to news reports -- which is near the upper limit of approved weather conditions for the Atlas V booster.

NASA has moved the countdown slightly, now expected to reach T-zero at 1:45 pm EST.

CNN is also reporting a slight oxygen valve problem aboard the rocket, although it is not believed to be a major problem and should not affect the launch.

Stay tuned to Aero-News for the latest update on New Horizons!

Original Report

If all goes to plan, the probe will liftoff atop an Atlas V rocket at approximately 1:24 pm Tuesday, according to Reuters, for its nine-year journey to the Kuiper Belt. The region is believed to hold thousands of planet-sized objects, as well as materials largely unchanged since they were formed at the birth of the solar system.

"Studying Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt Objects are key to understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system," said Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, to Reuters.

Anti-nuclear activists are expected to gather near the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday to protest the use of plutonium to power the space probe, which will travel too far from the sun to rely on solar power.

The ceramic plutonium pellets, which were created at Los Alamos National Labs, are fire-resistant. They are also designed to break into large chunks should the probe be damaged or destroyed during launch, according to NASA scientists, instead of microscopic particles -- which are potentially deadly.

New Horizons carries 24 pounds of the pellets, to power the probe's 70s-era radioisotope thermoelectric generators similar to those used on that era's Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. As the pellets decay, electricity is generated to power the probe.

It could have been worse for the activists: at one time, New Horizons was to be launched by a nuclear-powered rocket. Congress killed that proposal, however, instead authorizing the $700 million (a relative bargain) mission powered by conventional rockets.

Even if the probe doesn't launch Tuesday, NASA still has some time before the launch window closes -- albeit not a lot. The agency hopes to launch New Horizons before February 2, which would allow the probe to utilize a gravitational "slingshot" off of Jupiter to accelerate the probe towards Pluto, putting the spacecraft there in July 2015.

Should the probe launch after that, it would tack on over two years to the trip... and if it doesn't launch before Valentine's Day, NASA will have to wait until next year to try again.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html