United Launch Alliance will try again today to send a next-generation weather satellite into orbit. The rocket was fueled and ready to fly Thursday, but thunderstorms and lightning that swept across Cape Canaveral Air Force Station scrubbed the attempt.
"We were prepared," said Bill Cullen, ULA's launch director for the mission. "We had a good weather projection at the beginning, but the weather didn't work in our favor."
Today's liftoff is targeted for 6:14 p.m.
Air Force meteorologists predicted a 60-percent chance that similar stormy weather could disrupt today's one-hour launch window.
ULA is launching the latest in a series of NASA and NOAA satellites designed to provide more accurate forecasts of severe weather including hurricanes.
The satellite is a backup that will be called into service after two operational satellites reach the end of their useful lives, likely within a year or two.
Built by Boeing Co., the new satellite's 10-year mission cost is $499 million.
Orbiting about 22,300 miles above Earth, where they stay parked above fixed postions, the satellites monitor weather across the Western Hemisphere.
If today's launch scrubs again, ULA officials said they would probably not make another attempt Sunday to avoid overworking launch teams.
In that case, the next attempt would likely be Monday.
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