CAPE CANAVERAL An EchoStar television satellite is in orbit Thursday after an early-morning rocket ride aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2 booster.
Launch was delayed an hour while range safety officials chased away four boats that had violated a safety zone set up in the Atlantic Ocean for the rockets flight. The Coast Guard issues a notice to mariners to stay away from a corridor in the ocean where the Atlas rockets spent boosters and other equipment splash down. The safety zone also assures that if the rocket fails early in flight, any falling debris will land harmlessly in the ocean.
Three boats drifted into the safety zone as the rocket was being prepared for a 1:07 a.m. ET blastoff, then as the trio moved out of the area, a fourth boat appeared. The rocket finally blasted off at 2:02 a.m., ending a five-month hiatus in Atlas flights.
Launches have been on hold since an investigation into a Delta 3 failure which uncovered manufacturing flaws in an upper-stage Centaur engine common to both rockets.
The EchoStar spacecraft, built by Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, Calif., will become part of EchoStars DISH Network which provides direct-to-home television broadcast services.
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