"This measure has been decided in order to ensure full confidence in the performance of the satellite throughout its expected 12-year lifetime," the statement read. No further details were available and a EUTELSAT spokesperson did not immediately return a phone call.
Atlas launch officials, meanwhile, said they would take advantage of the delay to do some additional checks of the rocket's Centaur upper stage, suggesting that the April 14 launch date might have been difficult for Lockheed Martin to achieve anyway.
"We think we could have made the date," International Launch Services spokesperson Julie Andrews said Thursday. "But since we have the extra time to do some more testing we're going to take advantage of that in order to satisfy ourselves that everything will work as it should."
Despite the technical concerns with the satellite, the overall effort to prepare the Atlas 3-A rocket for its launch is going well, Andrews said. The next major step toward launch is scheduled for Wednesday when controllers will conduct a dress rehearsal of the countdown that includes filling the rocket's tanks with propellant.
Launch of the first Lockheed Martin Atlas 3 was originally planned for June 1999, but the destruction of a Boeing Delta 3 launch vehicle in May 1999 put everything on hold.
The reason: both rockets share a similarly-designed Centaur upper stage with a rocket engine built by Pratt & Whitney, which failed when it flew on the Delta 3. The failure had to be understood and corrected before either rocket could fly again, a fact that cost both launchers months of delay.
The delay also cost the Atlas 3 its first paying customer.
Loral Space and Communications' Telstar 7 satellite was supposed to fly on the first mission last summer. But when it became clear following the Delta 3 disaster that the Atlas wasn't going anywhere soon, Loral officials sent Telstar 7 to the Guiana Space Center in South America, where an Ariane 4 subsequently lofted the cargo into orbit in September 1999.
The Atlas 3 is a more powerful version of the Atlas 2, capable of carrying almost 10,000 pounds (4,535 kilograms) into high orbit above Earth. The extra lifting capability comes from the Russian-built rocket engines installed at the base of the Atlas first stage.
The configuration offers an historic irony: the Atlas was originally designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at the Soviet Union. Now, more than 40 years later, the Atlas nuclear missile has become a peaceful tool of American commerce powered by Russian engines.
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