The U.S. space agency NASA has postponed by one more day the launch of its first probe to the planet Pluto, because of a power outage.
A rainstorm knocked out power Wednesday to the laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. that controls the piano-size spacecraft. A NASA statement says takeoff has been postponed until at least Thursday.
The launch was postponed Tuesday because of high winds at the launch site in Florida.
The powerful Atlas rocket that will carry the probe into space is the fastest spacecraft ever launched. It is to blast off from Kennedy Space Center and travel at a speed of 58,000 kilometers an hour to send the probe to Pluto, the galaxy's farthest planet.
Space officials say the five-billion-kilometer journey will take nine years.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
