NASA, ULA to Launch Delta II on Friday

NASA and the United Launch Alliance will wait an additional 24 hours to try to launch a Delta II rocket from here at Cape Canaveral due to a small fuel leak detected following this morning weather scrub.

Launch managers have elected to stand down until Friday morning to resume the countdown of a Delta II-7920 at 8 AM EDT - the opening of a one hour launch window.

ULA told this reporter late this evening, "Following Wednesday morning's weather launch scrub, teams detected a small leak in a flange in the fuel transfer system under the launch pad. Both the Delta II and the STSS spacecraft have no technical issues."

Friday's launch date is not firm, but a target date based on how quickly technicians can fix the leak on Thursday.