Weather delays ‘flying saucer’ launch

LOS ANGELES – NASA hopes to try again to launch a “flying saucer” into Earth’s atmosphere to test Mars mission technology after losing the chance because of bad weather, project managers said Thursday.

The space agency is working with the U.S. Navy on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to see if it can get the experimental flight off the ground in late June.

During the current two-week launch window, the team came “tantalizingly close,” but winds spoiled every opportunity, said project manager Mark Adler of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Winds must be calm for a helium balloon to carry the disc-shaped vehicle over the Pacific so it doesn’t stray into no-fly zones.

“We’re ready to go. We’re not giving up,” Adler said.

NASA has invested $150 million in the project so far, and extending the launch window would come with some cost. If the flight doesn’t happen this summer, it would be postponed until next year.

The mission is designed to test a new supersonic vehicle and giant parachute in Earth’s stratosphere, where conditions are similar to the red planet.