US space authorities scrubbed an unmanned cargo mission to the orbiting International Space Station when a small plane flew into the vicinity of the launch pad moments before the blast off.
The launch of the Antares rocket, carrying private contractor Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo space capsule on Saturday, was rescheduled for Sunday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Atlantic coast of Virginia.
The US space agency said the weather forecast for the new five-minute launch window was 90-per-cent favourable.
NASA said on Twitter that the launch was "scrubbed for Saturday after an aircraft was detected in the vicinity of the launch pad".
Orbital ATK said it had confirmed that the wayward plane was a "small aircraft" flying at an altitude of 150 metres, nearly 10km offshore.
"We were working no issues until an aircraft flew into restricted airspace. We are currently de-tanking and will be ready to go tomorrow morning," Orbital ATK tweeted.
The spacecraft is loaded with some 3,300kg of crew supplies and hardware for the space station. The payload includes science experiments and a virtual reality camera for a television documentary.
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