Orbital Sciences and NASA engineers are making good progress in troubleshooting the ground support equipment issue that caused the postponement of the Glory launch on Feb. 23. Launch will be no earlier than March 4.

Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate.

Both aerosols and solar energy influence the planet's energy budget - the amount of energy entering and exiting Earth's atmosphere.

An accurate measurement of these impacts is important in order to anticipate future changes to our climate and how they may affect human life.

Project management for Glory is the responsibility of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is the launch service provider to Kennedy of the four-stage Taurus XL rocket and is also builder of the Glory satellite for Goddard.