The launch of NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft

NOAA’s JPSS 1 weather satellite is enshrouded inside the nose fairing of a Delta 2 rocket, awaiting liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a seven-year mission to collect data to improve global weather forecasts.

Brisk upper level winds blowing from the west thwarted a second try to launch a new NOAA weather satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket Wednesday, likely postponing the liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California until at least Saturday.

United Launch Alliance called off the launch of a Delta 2 rocket from California’s Central Coast early Tuesday after boats ventured into a restricted safety exclusion zone and engineers ran out of time to resolve a technical problem on the launcher.