Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995                   TAG: 9508140089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ATLANTIC                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGH WINDS DELAY ROCKET'S LAUNCH

Winds in the upper atmosphere ``exceed the allowable limits for launch,'' said Keith Koehler, a spokesman for the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Koehler said the launch would be rescheduled for today during a three-hour window starting at 5 p.m.

The mission of the five-story, 100-ton Conestoga rocket and its 1-ton METEOR transporter is to measure such things as microgravity's influence on mixed liquids and how cold temperatures in space affect pipes.

Of the 14 experiments aboard METEOR, eight belong to NASA and the remainder were set up by private companies.

The four-stage rocket, named for the wagons that carried pioneers to the American West, and METEOR, for Multiple Experiments Transporter to Earth Orbit and Return, were designed and built by EER Systems Corp.

EER, with headquarters in Vienna in Northern Virginia, hopes the mission will generate future business that could include delivery of packages to and from an eventual space station.

But the initial launch isn't a moneymaker, admitted Jim Hengle, vice president of the company. He declined to give an overall cost of the project, but NASA's contribution was $14 million.

The launch, originally set for late July, has been beset by delays that Hengle attributed to the number of clients sponsoring experiments. ``It's like Noah's Ark, getting everybody aboard and satisfied,'' he said.

Hengle attributed Saturday's postponement to winds approaching 60 knots at altitudes of 34,000 feet and higher. He said the rocket is designed to overcome winds of no higher than 45 knots.