Brazilian Air Force recovery teams have led a fruitless search for the payload released from a research rocket launched Thursday, the Brazilian space agency has revealed.

The VSB-30 rocket was launched from the seaside Alcantara Launching Center, near the northeastern city of Sao Luis, at 12:14 p.m. local time (1513 GMT), with the aim of carrying out microgravity research.

The rocket reached an approximate height of 280 km within 20 minutes and was to remain in microgravity for six minutes before descending. The payload, carrying nine scientific experiments, was set to study the fundamental states of matter (solids, liquids and gases) and the forces that affect them.

The payload was expected to be released with the aim of falling in to the sea 165 km from Maranhao state's coast. However, the module's tracking system failed.

According to the space agency, the payload still had not been found by 6:30 p.m. local time (2130 GMT) and the Air Force was to stop searching after sunset.

Rescue forces will Friday resume the mission, using Brazilian navy motorboats, as well as two helicopters and two planes from the air force, the agency said.

The rocket was originally set to be launched on July 10 but was delayed seven times because of bad weather.

The VSB-30 was the second rocket launched from Alcantara since August 2003, when 21 space agency workers were killed as a satellite-launching rocket exploded while being prepared for liftoff.