Pluto Spacecraft, NASA To Try, Try Again

NASA will try again today to launch its New Horizons spacecraft on a nine-year journey to Pluto, with a planned 1:16 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A launch attempt was canceled Tuesday because of high winds; forecasters are calling for a 70 percent chance of good conditions today. Isolated thunderstorms and high winds are the main concerns. The launch window for today runs from 1:16 to 3:15 p.m. EST.New Horizons is to be carried into space by a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket. The $700 million mission has until Feb. 14 to launch. If all goes well, the spacecraft will fly near Pluto in 2015 and gather the first close-up data and images of the icy world. A two-hour launch window is available each day through the end of January, at which time NASA could be forced to change the spacecraft's trajectory, adding three years to the journey. NASA officials said all spacecraft systems were functioning properly when the launch was scrubbed. New Horizons will be the fastest spacecraft ever launched by NASA, traveling at 36,000 mph when it leaves Earth's orbit. It will reach its top speed of 47,000 mph in 2007, after using Jupiter's gravity to slingshot itself into the outer solar system. Pluto is part of what is known as the Kuiper Belt, a collection of debris and planetoids located beyond Neptune. Pluto was once thought to be a frigid anomaly on the far edge of the solar system. With Kuiper Belt objects constantly being discovered, at least one of which is larger than Pluto, scientists say these small bodies of ice and rock are by far the most common objects in the solar system.