NASA delays Mars Orbiter launch to Thursday

NASA planned to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Wednesday but today the space agency announced the launch has been postponed 24 hours. The new launch window is Thursday, Aug. 11 from 7:50 to 9:35 a.m. EDT.

The launch was postponed due to a failure of a Redundant Rate Gyro Unit (RRGU) at the manufacturer. This unit is similar to two RRGU's that are part of the flight control system on the Atlas V launch vehicle at Launch Complex 41 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The engineering team is evaluating whether the failure that occurred in the testing at the manufacturer has any affect on other RRGU's in the MRO's Atlas V.