NASA Langley Research Center employees will have to wait one more day to see their latest atmospheric science research platform go into space. The launch of NASA's CloudSat and CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) satellites is rescheduled for Saturday, April 22. Launch is set for 6:02 a.m. EDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Launch commentary on NASA TV starts at 4 a.m. EDT.

Today's launch was scrubbed at T-48 seconds due to loss of the primary and backup phone communications between the Mission Directors Center at Vandenberg and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales Space Command in Toulouse, France. The communications loss is being evaluated.

A recorded CALIPSO and CloudSat launch status update is available at: (805) 734-2693. To record the launch from NASA TV go to MPEG-2 digital C-band signal on AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, Transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. To view the launch at home on the computer go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv.

NASA Langley leads the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) project. Ready for a three-year mission, the satellite is set to launch aboard a Boeing Delta II at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Data from CALIPSO will help scientists better understand Earth's clouds and airborne particles: answering questions about how they form, evolve, affect water supply, climate, weather and air quality. Launching on the same rocket is another NASA satellite, CloudSat. The two will fly just 15 seconds apart as part of NASA's "A-Train," a constellation of several Earth-observing satellites.

One of the partners in the CALIPSO mission, Hampton University is providing scientific contributions and managing the outreach program.

For more information on CALIPSO on the Internet, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/calipso

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