The rocket had been due to take off on Wednesday, but lift-off was cancelled three hours before launch after fire extinguishing fluids were detected leaking from parts of the equipment.

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Mr Kelly is commander of the Endeavour, due to lift off on Friday.

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To boost domestic oil supply, Mr McCain wants to lift the long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts (although, unlike Sarah Palin, he would keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off-limits).

ECONOMIST: Energy and the environment

Instead of dumping them on the ground (and breaking several), it stacked them together on pallets and used a small crane to lift them off their truck.

ECONOMIST: Idea

One by one, a lift truck is placing them carefully on top of squared-off black-and-white-striped steel pillars.

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And on Wednesday, they have another mission scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center that's going to send a probe to Mars.

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Joanne Maguire, overall head of the company's space programs, said in an interview that the Orion capsule is slated to blast off on top of a heavy-lift version of the U.S. military's Delta IV rocket.

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While some see that as supportive for gold, Gero said it seems that crude oil is getting a bigger lift out of that news than is gold on fears of a shutting off of crude oil supply.

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The lift-off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana was originally scheduled for 23:06 local time on Friday (02:06 GMT, Saturday).

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