Launch of U.S. Spacecraft Delayed

Thursday's scheduled launch of a new spacecraft intended to take U.S. astronauts back to the moon and beyond has been delayed for at least a day.

A variety of problems halted the Orion capsule's liftoff from the Cape Canaveral complex in Florida. They included a faulty rocket valve, wind speeds and a boat that wandered into a restricted zone off the coast.

The launch window closed at 9:44 a.m. EST, after the spacecraft failed to blast off by three different target times. According to a NASA tweet, the next possible launch window opens Friday.

The unmanned spacecraft is scheduled to make two orbits of the Earth at an altitude more than 14 times higher than the International Space Station. After a flight of 4 1/2 hours, Orion will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 32,000 kilometers an hour, then splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.?

NASA said the first manned mission aboard Orion will not happen until at least 2021. Once it is fully operational, Orion will carry anywhere from four to six astronauts on deep space missions to the moon, an asteroid and eventually Mars.

"This is really an exciting and important mission for us," said Dr. Ellen Ochoa, NASA's Johnson Space Center director. "We will in the future be putting our astronauts on board and we are testing some of the highest risks."

The space agency also is developing a new rocket, dubbed the Space Launch System, that will carry Orion.

Since the last space shuttle flight in 2011, U.S. astronauts have been transported to the ISS aboard Russia's Soyuz capsule. NASA has awarded contracts to two private companies, Boeing and Space X, to begin ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost beginning in 2017.

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Aerial Refueling Tanker Project Delayed

A project to procure aerial refueling aircraft worth W1.4 trillion will likely be delayed until around February next year because no acceptable offer is on the table yet (US$1=W1,114).

The project aims to help fighter jets remain airborne longer and increase their weapon-carrying capacity.

"It seems that the plan to choose the model in December will be delayed because offset deals offered by bidders fall short of our goal, although price negotiations have reached the final stage," an official with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Sunday.

Offsets in defense trade involves compensation including technology transfer or supply of other equipment.

The models on offer are Boeing's KC-46A, European Airbus' A330 MRTT, and Israeli IAI's 767 MMTT.

Korea wants to take delivery of four aerial refueling aircraft between 2017 and 2019.

The KC-46, a remodeled version of the civilian passenger aircraft B-767, can carry 96.1 tons of fuel and up to 114 personnel, but it is still under development with an eye to completion by 2017.

The A330 MRTT is bigger and thus capable of carrying 111 tons of fuel on its wings and up to 266 personnel. Development is already complete, and six countries including the U.K. and Australia have decided to purchase it. But it is so big that some airports in Korea would likely have difficulty handling takeoffs and landings.

The MMTT costs half as much as its rivals as it is a remodeled version of the decommissioned B-767. But the downside is that it is an elderly design.

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