Hardware issues, a boat and gusty winds forced NASA to postpone yesterday's launch of the Orion space capsule, though the space agency is ready to try again this morning.
The launch window opens today at 7:05 a.m. EST, according to NASA. You can watch the launch live on NASA TV below.
During a press conference following the canceled launch, Lockheed Martin's Orion program manager, Mike Hawes, said the spacecraft looks good for today's do-over.
.@LockheedMartin #Orion PM Mike Hawes, the spacecraft looks good, team performed well just like in simulations.
— Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) December 4, 2014
"The systems did just like the simulators told us they'd do," he said in a statement.
If nothing goes wrong today, the unmanned Orion capsule will launch for the first time atop a 243-foot United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.
NASA wants to launch the test capsule 3,600 miles up during two orbits, setting up a 20,000-mph re-entry through the atmosphere before it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean some four-and-a-half hours after liftoff, according to a company release.
"We haven't had this feeling in a while, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday.
The space agency working on Orion to fly astronauts to deep space destinations, like an asteroid and Mars. They're hoping to send up the first flight with astronauts around 2021.
Lockheed Martin Corp., which is running the $370 million test flight for NASA, chose to go with the Delta IV rocket this time around. Future missions will likely rely on NASA's mega Space Launch System rocket.
NASA's last journey past low-Earth orbit in a vessel built for people was Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Once in orbit, the spacecraft should send back some pictures back to Earth, NASA said. If the weather cooperates, NASA said a drone will also provide a live video feed of the splashdown.
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