Update to story first posted at 8:50 a.m. EDTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Launch of a Starsem Soyuz rocket carrying a pair of European Space Agency science probes was called off at the last minute on Saturday because of a problem with a connection between the rocket and the launch pad.
Liftoff has been rescheduled for Sunday between 8:39 amd 8:43 a.m. EDT (1239 and 1243 GMT).
If the Soyuz rocket cannot launch on Sunday the mission will be delayed several days so that routine maintenance work can be performed on the Soyuz booster, said Roger Bonnet, a science program director for the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Soyuz booster is carrying a pair of science satellites for ESA.
Countdown clocks at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan were ticking backwards and everything appeared normal until a little less than one minute before launch when an umbilical arm did not move away from the rocket as expected, signaling some kind of trouble.
The launch window duration on Saturday was only four minutes so there wan't enough time to troubleshoot the problem and make another attempt. Weather was acceptable and there were no problems reported with the spacecraft.Officials confirmed a few hours later the problem was relatively minor and that a second launch attempt on Sunday would be possible.
"The launch was aborted because of a bad connection between the ground pad and the launcher, which made it impossible to send pyrotechnic commands to one of the boosters of the Soyuz launcher," Bonnet said.
Bonnet added there was no damage to the rocket and that everything still looks good to go, although the Russian State Commission that approves all launch operations at Baikonur will meet again early Sunday to give a final "go" for launch.
"Personally, I'm relieved that this little incident has demonstrated the robustness of the system, which has been under high pressure here," Bonnet said.
Update to story first posted at 8:50 a.m. EDTCluster patiently waits
Destined for a ride atop the Soyuz rocket are a pair of Cluster science probes that will be operated by ESA. A second pair of the identical probes is scheduled for launch in August.
Once in orbit, the Cluster probes will watch how plasma ejected by our sun interacts with Earth's magnetic field.
The four Cluster spacecraft to be launched this summer are replacements for another four lost in 1996 during the inaugural launch of the Ariane 5 rocket, which tumbled out of control and was destroyed shortly after launch from the Guiana Space Center in South America.
Starsem, the joint Russian-French company, is responsible for the launch, which includes the use of a new upper stage called Fregat.
Starsem conducted two successful test launches of the Soyuz rocket with the new Fregat upper stage earlier this year. This launch is to be the first commercial use of the new launch vehicle.
U.S. Air Force Delta 2 Next
Saturday's Soyuz shot was to be the second Russian-related launch on the same day. At Baikonur's northern Russia space center counterpart, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a commercial Cosmos-3M rocket lofted a trio of small science satellites into Earth orbit.
Nonetheless, there is still a chance that planet Earth can host a pair of launches on Sunday.
In addition to the rescheduled Soyuz launch, the United States Air Force is planning to launch a Boeing-built Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between 5:17 and 5:43 a.m. EDT (0917-0943 GMT) Sunday.
The 13-story rocket is to carry another of the Navstar Global Positioning System satellites into Earth orbit to supplement the constellation of 24 satellites already circling overhead.
The military navigation satellites help users pinpoint their exact location on the ground, at sea, in the air and even in space.
Although heavy thunderstorms are moving over Central Florida on Saturday, the weather is expected to be mostly favorable in time for the launch Sunday morning, with a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions.
(Frederic Castel contributed to this report from Paris)
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