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Atlas 5 First Flight Delayed While Awaiting More Tests
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
posted: 10:00 pm ET
02 July 2002
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Atlas 5 First Flight Delayed While Awaiting More TestsCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The inaugural launch of the Atlas 5 rocket has been delayed until early August to allow for more testing International Launch Services (ILS) announced Tuesday in a note e-mailed to customers. Liftoff of the Lockheed Martin booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is now expected no earlier than August 6, a one-week slip from the previously targeted July 29 launch date. Mission managers say they need at least an extra week to conduct additional tests of the new rocket while it sits on the pad at Space Launch Complex 41. An exact date will depend on results of the tests and the availability of the Eastern Range, officials said. The specific concern is with the system that retracts umbilicals at launch. Engineers want to repeat some tests that were performed on the system earlier this year. Representing Lockheed Martin's contribution to the Air Force's next generation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, the Atlas 5 is to carry Hot Bird 6 for Eutelsat on a commercial mission marketed by ILS. Boeing's EELV -- the Delta 4 -- also is to carry a spacecraft for Eutelsat on that rocket's inaugural flight, which is now targeted to fly Aug. 31.Both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 were at one point set to fly in early May, but the flights were delayed because neither Eutelsat spacecraft were going to be ready as planned. Hot Bird 6 is now at the Cape. The next step for the Atlas 5 will be another countdown dress rehearsal, a three-day series of exercises expected to begin July 15.
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