NASA to launch Mars probe

NASA plans to launch its next Mars spacecraft Friday on a two-year mission to search for possible landing sites for future manned trips and to study the planet's surface and atmosphere in greater detail than ever before.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to be launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than 7:43 a.m. local time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

Takeoff was postponed for the past two days, first because a flight control system similar to those on the vehicle failed during testing, and then because of a problem with a fuel sensor in the launch rocket, NASA said, according to Bloomberg.