GRAY SKIES HALT LAUNCH.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Thick clouds prevented NASA from launching the JPL-managed Genesis spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Wednesday, much to the disappointment of the more than 100 supporters gathered at the lab.

While waiting for the launch, the crowd in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's von Karman Auditorium snacked on pastries and watched a short documentary on the Genesis mission - the first U.S. mission to return extraterrestrial samples since the Apollo moon landings.

It was the second scrubbed launch for the mission. Genesis was supposed to lift off Monday, but a pair of power converters in the spacecraft became suspect after identical devices failed radiation testing in France.

Ann Sweetnam said her husband, Don, left for JPL in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday. Don Sweetnam is manager of the JPL flight team that will take control of the Genesis spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the launch.

``I guess it's better if it doesn't go than get lost up there or something,'' she said.

Launch managers did not immediately say whether they would try again today. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has just two minutes each day, until mid-August, to attempt to launch the unmanned Delta rocket with the spacecraft.