NASA said Dec. 4 that the launch of its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base had been pushed back two days to Dec. 11.
An official at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida said the date change was driven by the delay in launching the U.S. Air Force’s Wideband Global Satcom-3, which at press time was slated to lift off Dec. 5 from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Although NASA’s and the Air Force’s payloads are launching from opposite coasts, both are going up on Delta 2 rockets.