NASA delays soil study satellite launch for 'repairs'

MIAMI - Agence France-Presse

NASA has scrubbed the launch of an Earth-observing satellite Thursday. The launch has been rescheduled for Saturday morningJanuary 31. AP Photo

NASA has pushed back the launch of a satellite to study soil moisture to Saturday, so that it can perform "minor repairs" to the launch rocket.
      
"The launch of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, which will produce the highest-resolution maps of soil moisture ever obtained from space, has been delayed to a targeted launch date of January 31," the US space agency said on its website.
      
NASA said that repairs to minor "de-bonds" in the rocket's booster insulation are needed before a launch, which had been set for early Friday.        

The new target launch time is Saturday at 9:20 am (1420 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
      
An earlier launch planned for Thursday was scuttled because of windy weather.        

The high-resolution maps that SMAP returns to scientists should help prepare for the future in which severe weather like droughts and storms are expected to become more frequent, by giving experts better tools to forecast how crops and forests will change as the planet warms.