The launch of NASA’s NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite has been pushed back a day to Oct. 28 to give engineers extra time to inspect the spacecraft before it is sealed up inside the payload fairing of its United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket.
“The launch is currently targeted for Oct. 28 at 5:48 a.m. Eastern time,” NASA wrote Oct. 21 on its website.
The latest delay, the second this month for NPP, was announced Oct. 19. Earlier this month, problems with the Delta 2 rocket that will boost the satellite into orbit forced NASA to push the launch date to Oct. 27 from Oct. 25. NPP will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
NPP is an advanced climate and weather satellite that was conceived as an instrument test bed for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
NPP was thrust into an operational role following delays to the NPOESS program. The White House in 2010 canceled NPOESS and directed the Pentagon and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to pursue separate weather satellite systems.
