WASHINGTON The launch of a U WASHINGTON The launch of a U.S. military weather satellite aboard a Titan 2 rocket will be postponed at least two months while engineers repair a problem with the spacecrafts guidance system, a spokeswoman at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California said Jan. 24.
An attempt to loft the $93 million Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
spacecraft Jan. 22 was called off after the problem was detected. It was the third postponement of the mission.Fixing the satellite and refurbishing the rocket will take at least 60 days, according to U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt., Rebecca Bonilla.
The DMSP satellites weather sensors are designed to provide up-to-the-minute forecasting information to Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps ground stations and ships at sea anywhere in the world.
The Titan 2 launch vehicle is a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that sat on alert in an underground silo at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas from 1967 to 1986.
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