CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA again pushed back the launch of the latest Mars rover, this time until Sunday, so replacement cork insulation has more time to adhere to the aluminum rocket body.

The launch of the rover Opportunity, which had been set for Saturday, is now planned for 10:43 p.m. EDT Sunday.

The space agency has delayed the launch several times in the past two weeks because of problems with the cork insulation and weather.

NASA set July 15 as a deadline to launch Opportunity, but it is studying whether it could extend that by two days before Mars and Earth move too far apart for the spacecraft to reach the red planet, deputy mission manager Mark Adler said Thursday. If it misses the launch opportunity, it will have to wait until at least November 2004.

Adler said Thursday he expects the rover will be launched this month.

About 10 percent of a 2-foot-wide band of cork insulation, about 40 feet up on the rocket, was replaced after it was found to be peeling Sunday. The cork protects the aluminum skin of the Delta II Heavy rocket from the fiery blasts of the boosters during liftoff.

“They found they needed some … extra time to dry and have a good bond between the cork and the vehicle,” said George Diller, a NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center.

Workers will test the replacement cork on Saturday.

Opportunity and its sister rover, Spirit, launched earlier this month, will act as robotic geologists during their three months of exploration on the Martian surface.

The rovers are expected to arrive on Mars in January and will send back images of sediment and mineral deposits that could help scientists determine whether there was ever enough water on the planet to sustain life.

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