Tension and dismay were etched in the faces of The University of Montana researchers as their launch window ticked away. The countdown for the Atlas IIAS rocket that would carry their software into space was on hold, stymied by unexpected weather balloon data indicating high winds in the upper atmosphere. A Pacific front had just moved in, perfectly timed to disrupt NASA’s 24-minute window of opportunity on Dec. 18.

Years of work by UM’s Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group had come to this: They were 10 people pacing among hundreds of other scientists and technicians in a huge Lockheed Martin aircraft hangar at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The UM delegation edgily scanned television monitors showing the rocket and listened to crackling public-address-system updates from Atlas Launch Control. Some wandered outside to gaze at the 165-foot-tall tower of metal resting serenely on its pad four miles away. They suspected it wasn’t going anywhere. And the 60-degree temperature and blue windless sky belied controllers’ statements that air currents raged far above.

The group was used to disappointment. Various delays already had kept the rocket and the Terra environmental satellite it contained stranded on the pad for 27 months. Then when NASA finally set a firm launch date for Dec. 16, that event was scrubbed because of a glider straying into Vandenberg air space and then a computer glitch. Close to 1,000 spectators had been bused to the base for that launch attempt, only to be disappointed 39 seconds before liftoff. Now, two days later, NASA was trying again before a much smaller audience.

The wind delay brought spirits to a new low. If this launch failed, NASA wouldn’t try again until at least Jan. 6, and most of the UM crew wouldn’t return to watch their work take flight. No one knew when another attempt would happen. If they had learned anything in the last two days, it was that rocket science offers no guarantees.

When asked, Joe Glassy, the UM team’s director of software development, gave the launch perhaps a 25 percent chance of taking place. Director Steve Running said, “This is just like a Hollywood suspense thriller.” Program director Young-ee Cho responded, “But in Hollywood we usually have a happy ending.”

The launch window ticked away, the countdown clock wasn’t moving and tensions mounted. Graduate student team member Alisa Keyser said, “I think I’m going to throw up.”

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