"Were now looking at the January-February time frame," spokesperson Ronea Alger told space.com Tuesday from the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angles Air Force Base. The center has program management for the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) whose B8 mission was delayed.

Defects in the insulation covering splices within the wiring harnesses of a pair of DSCS satellites still at their Lockheed Martin factory were discovered following an inspection. The Air Force decided to return the B8 satellite from its Cape Canaveral, Florida launch site to the Sunnyvale, California assembly plant for modifications, since the B8 flight unit had the same type of harness splices.

The satellite arrived at the Cape for the planned October 22 launch last August 21. The DSCS B8 was to ride into orbit atop an Atlas rocket, also built by Lockheed Martin.

The DSCS B8 is the first of four of the DSCS military communication satellites modified and upgraded by Lockheed Martin under an Air Force Service Life Enhancement Program (SLEP) aimed at keeping the spacecraft upgraded prior to each mission. DSCS Phase II and III satellites are used by the military for communications services The Phase II satellites, built by TRW Inc., were orbited by Titan 34D launch vehicles in the 1980s. Titans were also used to launch the early Phase III satellites.

As of 1990, the Air Force reported that four Phase III and one Phase II satellites were still operational, with two more of the older Phase II spacecraft available as on-orbit spares. Nine Phase III spacecraft were orbited between 1992 and 1995, and five more were to be placed in space between 1998 and 2003.

The Phase III spacecraft have a 10-year life expectancy in space, and 14 satellites were originally ordered by the Air Force in a contract that was issued to Lockheed in 1975.

The first operational DSCS III was orbited by a Titan 34D from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 30, 1982.