CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- With no firm decision yet as to when to fly its next satellite, a London-based communications company this week has forced Boeing to scrub its tentative plans to launch a Delta 3 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 31.

Boeing had booked that date on the Eastern Range in anticipation of ICO Global Communications' needs, but ICO's plans remain unclear thanks to the loss of their first satellite on a different rocket in March and bankruptcy proceedings the company has faced since August.

As a result, Boeing managers are looking for a new customer to ride the troubled booster, which has yet to prove itself following catastrophic failures during its first two missions in August 1998 and May 1999.

All of the major components required to assemble the rocket on its launch pad are here at Cape Canaveral and could be configured to fly a wide variety of potential payloads with little delay, Nelson said.

Boeing managers might also consider flying the Delta 3 rocket without a paying customer as a way to demonstrate to the aerospace industry that the launch vehicle is working fine and ready to support future customers.

"Right now we're maintaining all of our options," Nelson said.

Boeing has 18 firm contracts for satellite-delivery missions using the Delta 3, but future business worth hundreds of millions of additional dollars could be riding on the success or failure of the next try at sending a Delta 3 into orbit.

The first attempt in 1998 failed when a computer program glitch forced the rocket to tumble out of control and explode shortly after launch. The second attempt nearly a year later ended in disappointment when the rocket's upper stage engine built by Pratt & Whitney of West Palm Beach, Florida failed.

Officials believe all of the problems are fixed and that the Delta 3 is ready for its return to flight. Results of a final top-level review of the 1999 engine failure are expected by month's end.

That news may or may not affect ICO's plans, which essentially are on hold while the company recovers from the loss of their first satellite during the Sea Launch mission that failed in March.

"We have not said anything yet about our launch schedule going forward," said ICO spokesman Joe Tedino. "The schedule is not yet determined."

The company is one of several competing to provide worldwide cellular telephone service using satellites in Earth orbit to relay the signal to ground stations.

Complicating the picture is the fact that ICO is also one of two such companies that filed for Chapter 11 protection last August.

According to an ICO news release, the company is scheduled to participate in a court hearing on May 3 that could lead to ICO emerging from its reorganization effort by the middle of the month. A more firm schedule for launching their satellites is likely to follow that event.

Meanwhile, the next launch from Cape Canaveral currently is targeted for April 21 at 11:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (April 22, 03:05 GMT). An Air Force Delta 2 rocket is to carry a Global Positioning System satellite into Earth orbit.