HotBird 7 late
Ariane 5 launch postponed “by a few days”The maiden launch of a new heavyweight European rocket, which was aborted at the last minute on Thursday, will be postponed “by a few days,” the head of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall said Friday. Le Gall, whose company markets the European Space Agency’s Ariane launchers, said the problem had been caused by a software glitch at ground control.”It will entail postponing (the launch) by a few days,” he told a news conference.
“Correcting the anomaly, reconfiguring the flight will take us a few days following the meetings to be held later this afternoon… We will be able to announce a new launch date by early next week.”
Liftoff was aborted with just three seconds left on the clock, after ground control computers failed to give a final OK to computers onboard the rocket that would have initiated the ignition sequence, he said.
The rocket is carrying Hotbird TM7 for the European telecoms consortium Eutelsat and Stentor, an experimental communications satellite for the French space research institute CNES.
Engineers were slowly purging the rocket of its liquid fuel so that it can be safely returned to the assembly building for the time being, Le Gall said.
