Deep Impact launch postponed more than a week

[drwayne]

Launch of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft that will blast a small projectile into the heart of Comet Tempel 1 has been delayed from December 30 to give engineers more time to complete pre-flight work on mission software, the space agency announced today. <br /><br />Liftoff is now targeted for no sooner than January 8 at 2:39:50 p.m. EST (1939:50 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's pad 17B. <br /><br />The mission must launch within a 30-day window that offers the proper trajectory for Deep Impact to reach the comet next July. An 820-pound copper-tipped impactor will be fired from the mothership to slam into the comet's nucleus, excavating a stadium-sized crater that should expose pristine material buried in Tempel 1 since the solar system formed more than four billion years ago<br /><br />Rest of the article here:<br /><br />http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d311/041124delay.html<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>