NASA's Orion has 'bull's eye' landing after test mission - USA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA was counting down Friday morning to a second attempt to launch its new exploration capsule on its inaugural test flight.

Rain was moving across the region, but showing some signs of clearing in time for the 7:05 a.m. opening of the roughly two-and-a-half hour launch window at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The first launch attempt scrubbed Thursday as engineers worked to troubleshoot a valve problem on the 243-foot Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the capsule.

Friday's launch window again goes until 9:44 a.m.

Orion is a larger version of an Apollo capsule that NASA is developing to fly astronauts to an asteroid by the 2020s, and potentially Mars by the 2030s.

Crews won't climb on board before 2021, after a second unmanned test planned in 2018.

The $375 million Exploration Flight Test-1 mission is primarily a test of the Orion crew module's heat shield, flight computers, and parachutes.

LIVE BLOG: NASA's Orion test flight rocket launch

The flight aims to loft Orion 3,600 miles high on its second orbit, setting up a 20,000-mph re-entry through the atmosphere and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, four-and-a-half hours after the launch from Florida.

On Thursday, a mostly quiet countdown ran into trouble late.

A boat - possibly a cargo ship, according to ULA - briefly strayed into the launch danger zone in the Atlantic Ocean, preventing an on-time liftoff.

Strong winds then twice halted countdowns a few minutes before planned launch times.

Finally, liquid hydrogen valves in two of the Delta IV Heavy rocket's three boosters failed to close properly, stopping short a third try before 8:30 a.m. The issue couldn't be fixed before the window closed at 9:44 a.m.

Dan Collins, ULA chief operating officer, said the valves got 'cold and a little sluggish' more than an hour into the launch window, an issue seen on a previous launch by the same type of rocket.

Even though the rocket and Orion together weigh 1.6 million pounds, strong or gusting winds can still push the rocket and cause it to drift as it rises slowly from its Launch Complex 37 pad.

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Entities 0 Name: Orion Count: 4 1 Name: NASA Count: 3 2 Name: Delta IV Heavy Count: 2 3 Name: ULA Count: 2 4 Name: Atlantic Ocean Count: 1 5 Name: Dan Collins Count: 1 6 Name: Pacific Ocean Count: 1 7 Name: Fla. Count: 1 8 Name: CAPE CANAVERAL Count: 1 9 Name: Florida Count: 1 10 Name: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/12Aemgt Title: NASA's first unmanned Orion launch scrubbed Description: The planned first launch of NASA's new Orion MPCV spacecraft was scrubbed this morning after a string of delays kept the vehicle on the pad through the end of its 159-minute launch window.

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