The rocket had not been due to leave the Earth's atmosphere during the test flight [AFP]

Launch of Ares I-X had been set for Tuesday from Cape Canaveral in Florida, in what was to be the first step of a plan to return astronauts to the moon.

But take-off was repeatedly delayed due to bad weather conditions and minor communication system problems. Naso will now try to launch during a four-hour window from 8am (1200GMT) on Wednesday.

"Overall, the weather will improve," a Nasa official said after the take-off was postponed.

The test is planned to last for two minutes with the $45m rocket not leaving the Earth's atmosphere.

The main body of the rocket will drop to Earth, into the Atlantic Ocean, for retrieval.

The head of the rocket - all fake parts - will fall uncontrolled into the ocean.

Constellation generation

Nasa officials hope the flight will provide valuable data on the rocket's performance, despite deep uncertainty over the space programme's future.

Ares I-X rocket

• Rocket is 99.6m high, 10m taller than the Statue of Liberty
• Largest rocket built since the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo space programme
• Based on solid rocket motors used to launch space shuttle
• Project is part of Constellation programme to replace space shuttle, taking astronauts to space station and for exploration deeper into space
• Test flight will last two minutes 30 seconds and will not enter space
• Nasa hopes to begin manned flights using Ares rockets in 2015

It hopes to use an Ares rocket to launch the first astronauts into orbit in 2015, beginning a new chapter of manned space flight that it says will take humans back to the Moon and onwards to a landing on Mars.

A much larger rocket, the Ares V, would be used to blast the necessary hardware into space which would then rendez vous with the manned capsule before the assembled spacecraft begins its mission.

But an independent panel of experts last week threw cold water on Nasa's ambitions in a report to the White House, warning that the agency needs $3bn a year in extra funding to meet its goals.

In the 155-page report released on Thursday, panel leader Norman Augustine, former president of aerospace company Lockheed Martin, said a lack of funding meant Nasa's human space flight programme "appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory".

Instead the report from the 10-member-panel proposed the idea of manned space flights to asteroids, as well as flyovers close to the Moon and Mars, both of which would avoid the need to factor in complicated landing arrangements.

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