The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Thursday delayed the launch of a satellite meant to study soil moisture on Earth due to windy weather. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory will make another attempt to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Friday, dpa quoted NASA as saying. The high-resolution maps that SMAP returns to scientists should help prepare for the future in which severe weather such as droughts and storms are expected to become more frequent, by giving experts better tools to forecast how crops and forests will change as the planet warms.
