CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Launch of NASA's Ares I-X test rocket yesterday was delayed 24 hours because of bad weather and a wayward freighter that briefly strayed into the off-shore danger area.

"We had some opportunities and just couldn't get there -- weather didn't cooperate," launch director Ed Mango told his team after the $445 million mission was called off for the day.

Launch of the 327-foot-tall test rocket was rescheduled to a four-hour launch window starting at 8 a.m. EDT today. Forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather, with lighter winds and less cloud cover than yesterday.

NASA set up to launch the rocket at least a half-dozen times yesterday, but had to stand down because forecasters were concerned about high clouds, winds in excess of 23 mph and "triboeletrification" -- the buildup of static electricity on the rocket during its ascent through cold clouds with ice particles between 22,000 and 72,000 feet.

At 9:44 a.m. EDT, conditions improved significantly, and NASA was preparing to come out of the hold, when an unidentified ship strayed into the launch danger zone. It took the Air Force about three minutes to contact the ship and make sure it was out of harm's way -- enough time for the weather to turn and the window of opportunity to close.

NASA never got as good a chance again the rest of the morning.

The Ares I-X is a trial version of the Ares I rocket, planned under NASA's Constellation program to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit aboard an Orion capsule. The test rocket includes a real solid-rocket first stage, with a mock second stage and dummy Orion crew capsule on top to simulate the intended weight and size of Ares I.

The test flight comes at an uncertain time for NASA. It plans to use Ares and Orion to replace the space shuttle fleet and return astronauts to the moon by 2020 are under review by President Barack Obama.

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