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WASHINGTON Lucas Perez Arsenal Jersey , Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The first test flight of the U.S. new human spacecraft, Orion, designed to carry astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars, has been postponed for 24 hours, U.S. space agency NASA said Thursday.


The 370-million-U.S.-dollar launch was originally scheduled for 7:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT), but was delayed four times Laurent Koscielny Arsenal Jersey , first due to a stray boat in the launch zone, then twice for strong winds and finally because of an issue related to the rocket's fill and drain valves.


At last, NASA decided to cancel the launch attempt from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as teams could not troubleshoot the valve problem before the two-hour, 39-minute launch window expired.


"The launch of Orion's flight test has been scrubbed for today, " NASA said in a statement. "The next launch window opens at 7:05 a.m. Eastern on Friday, Dec. 5."


On this unmanned test flight Krystian Bielik Arsenal Jersey , Orion will test systems critical to crew safety as it travels farther into space than any spacecraft built for humans has traveled in more than 40 years, NASA said.


During the 4.5-hour flight, Orion will orbit Earth twice, covering more than 60,000 miles (96,600 km) and reaching an altitude of 3 Kieran Gibbs Arsenal Jersey ,600 miles (5,800 km) on the second orbit, 15 times farther than the International Space Station.


That altitude will allow the spacecraft to return through the atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 mph (32,000 kph), which will generate temperatures near 4 Joel Campbell Arsenal Jersey ,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius) on Orion'sheat shield. Those temperatures are about 80 percent as hot as Orion would experience returning from lunar orbit, NASA said.


The test flight will also validate systems such as Orion's parachutes, avionics and attitude control, and demonstrate major separation events such as the launch abort system jettison and the service module fairing separation.


If all goes well, the flight will end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California where NASA and U.S. Navy teams will recover the spacecraft for future use.


Although Orion is a NASA program Jeff Reine-Adelaide Arsenal Jersey , the test flight is managed and led by Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the spacecraft, and will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in America.


by Maria Spiliopoulou


ATHENS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greece was gripped by a new nationwide 24-hour general strike on Thursday, the first major mobilization in eight months Jack Wilshere Arsenal Jersey , as the government debated a short extension of the bailout deals with international lenders.


Following the failure to strike an agreement with auditors in Paris on Wednesday on the terms of the release of the last aid tranche in December, the conservative- led government pointed to a short delay of the exit from the EUIMF bailout initially scheduled for year end.


"The goal is to have the last installment disbursed before December 31. If for technical reasons some procedures cannot be completed, there could be an extension," Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Thursday, after a meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to discuss the developments.


Venizelos stressed that the extension could take a few days or weeks and Athens in no case will discuss a new memorandum with international creditors which in return would require the implementation of more austerity and reform measures. Greece does not need new loans, he underlined.


Five years after the start of the debt crisis which brought the country at the brink of financial collapse Isaac Hayden Arsenal Jersey , Greece wants to put a closure on the bailout deals struck since May 2010 which helped keep the ailing economy afloat with multi-billion euro rescue loans in exchange of harsh cuts on salaries, pensions, tax hikes and structural reforms.


Greece exited a six-year recession this year, according to official data, but Greek society still suffers the consequences and can not bear more burdens, protesters who took to the streets of Athens on Thursday a few blocks further from the Prime Minister's office said.


"It is either them or us Hector Bellerin Arsenal Jersey ," read banners waved by demonstrators in front of the parliament during the rally organized by the two umbrella labor unions of public and private sector employees (ADEDY and GSEE) and Left opposition parties.


The mobilization was called in protest of the 2015 draft budget which is due to be put to vote in the parliament on December 7 and foresees further tax increases and spending cuts in the public sector, including mass layoffs.