WASHINGTON (CNN) — NASA’s launch of the Mars Science Laboratory –
hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns — has been delayed until
the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a Thursday press conference in
Washington.

The mission had been scheduled for launch in the fall of 2009.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a large, nuclear-powered rover designed to
traverse long distances with a suite of onboard scientific instruments aboard.
It is, according to NASA’s website, part of a “long-term effort of robotic
exploration” established to “study the early environmental history of Mars” and
assess whether Mars has ever been — or still is — able to sustain life.

The delay, according to NASA, is due to a number of “testing and hardware
challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success.”

“The progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving
technical challenges and pulling hardware together,” said Charles Elachi,
director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Changing to a 2011 launch “will allow for careful resolution of any
remaining technical problems, proper and thorough testing, and avoid a mad dash
to launch,” argued NASA’s Associate Administrator Ed Weiler.