WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Launch-services provider Astrotech Space Operations will prepare two Earth-observation satellites -- one with a whale watching component -- for autumn lift-offs under a $479,600 contract.

The satellites -- Earth Observing 1 (E0 1) and the Argentine-U.S. collaboration Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas C (SAC C) -- will be launched on a single Delta expendable launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force base in California.

Under the terms of the award from NASA, Astrotech, a subsidiary of Spacehab, Inc., will prepare the launch site and process the payloads over a 60-day period before launch. The services include mechanical assembly, electrical checkout, liquid propellant loading, assembly of the clamshell-like nose on the payload and installation of "squibs" -- small explosive charges fired in orbit to release the craft's deployable mechanisms.

EO 1, a smaller and lighter Earth-mapping craft, is experiencing delays in the testing laboratory, likely bumping the launch initially slated for October to mid November.

A July 3 test on EO 1 revealed a glitch in the transponder, the command link from Earth to the spacecraft, said Nicholas Speciale, EO 1 Mission Technologist at NASA Goddard in Maryland.

"In certain thermal regions of the transponder warming up, we'd lose command capability," he said, adding that a "red team" is meeting next week to confirm the new launch date.

SAC C is already at Vandenberg Air Force base. After Astrotech's prelaunch prep work is completed, the satellite will be ready for its mission to study Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere, along with its geomagnetic field. It will also measure space radiation, as well as chart the migration route of the Franca whale.