The launch
of the European probe Venus Express hit a snag Friday when pad workers found
traces of contamination inside its fairing.
Insulation contamination
forced pad workers to pry Venus Express from its perch atop a Russian Soyuz
rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft’s Oct. 26 launch
target has been delayed to allow time to clean the spacecraft, ESA officials said.
In this
image, the boxy Venus Express spacecraft (top) is lowered onto its Fregat upper
stage in preparations for launch. The spacecraft is the first Venus probe built
for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is set to launch before Nov. 24. It is
scheduled to reach Venus in April 2006.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: ESA.
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