NASA's Mars Science Lab, a huge rover packed with the most sophisticated science tools yet put on Mars, will be delayed two years. It will now be scheduled to launch in 2011.
Program leaders maintain there was still a chance MSL could be ready to launch by next October, but NASA decided to take the two extra years to give everyone time to be sure everything is ready to go. MSL is designed to search for evidence of life on Mars, and as a complex, flagship mission, NASA wants to be as sure as possible that it will function properly.
The delay of two years is not due to the program, but to the alignment of the planets, given the flight path the probe will follow. If a launch window is missed, Earth and Mars aren;t in the same relative position to each other for another two years.
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