The launch of NASA's Dawn mission has been delayed by 24 hours because the weather gods are not playing ball.

Ready to launch, just waiting for the weather.

The spacecraft is all bundled up on the launch pad and ready to go, NASA says. All it needs is a window of decent clear skies so NASA's techs can get out to the launch pad and put some fuel in the rocket's second stage.

The mission is now set to blast off on 27 September, in a short launch window between 7:20am and 7:49am, Eastern time.

Dawn's goal is to search the asteroid belt for clues to the conditions and processes that were at work in the very first years of our solar system's existence. The craft will make detailed surveys of the massive asteroid Vesta and the mini planet Ceres, with the hope of discovering more about the very different processes that are thought to have formed each body. ®

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• NASA names the day for Dawn raid on asteroid belt (18 September 2007)
• Brief NASA delays Dawn again (9 July 2007)
• Brief Dawn mission hiding out after lightning threat (6 July 2007)