KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS: [31REGION Edition]

Abstract

After three straight Mars missions failed this fall, NASA had planned to right itself yesterday with two launches: One putting a $1.3 billion Earth-observing satellite into space and the other sending the space shuttle Discovery on a mission to fix the dormant $6 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

First, a sensor glitch canceled the launch of an Atlas rocket carrying NASA's Terra satellite. Then NASA called off Discovery's launch because of a paperwork snafu and possible welding problem. NASA officials remained hopeful that they could fire the rockets today.