Weather delays NASA rocket test

The scheduled launch of a NASA test rocket Tuesday morning was postponed until Wednesday because of high winds and clouds.

The launch team for the Ares I-X rocket is making preparations for another launch window Wednesday morning between 8 a.m. and noon ET.

The launch time for the Ares I-X was pushed back several times Tuesday, for a minor communication problem, a stuck Velcro cover on the top of the rocket and a ship that wandered into the launch danger zone off Cape Canaveral.

The countdown began around 9:45 a.m. ET, but the weather officer cut off the launch with under three minutes to go.

The weather continued to cause delays throughout the morning, until the launch was finally scrubbed around 11:30 a.m.

No astronauts on board

NASA had scheduled a launch window from 8 a.m. until noon ET.

The 98-metre Ares rocket is on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The test launch will help NASA's engineers determine if the design can withstand the extreme stresses that occur during liftoff.

The rocket's experimental flight is expected to last about two minutes. The first-stage booster will fall into the Atlantic under parachutes.

No astronauts will be on board the rocket. The Ares I-X is the first version of a series of rockets set to carry the U.S. space agency's next-generation Orion spacecraft after the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. There are only six scheduled flights left for the shuttles.

The Orion-Ares combination is not due to launch with astronauts on board until 2017 at the earliest. That poses a problem for the U.S. contribution to the International Space Station, which is currently scheduled to be decommissioned in 2015.