Posted: Wed, Feb 26, 2003, 8:12 PM ET (0112 GMT)
International Launch Services (ILS) reported late Wednesday that it has postponed next month's launch of an Atlas 5 booster because of a problem with the vehicle's upper stage. The Atlas 5 401 was scheduled to launch March 14 from Cape Canaveral to place the Hellas-Sat 2 communications satellite into orbit. However, ILS said in a statement that engineers had "identified an issue" with some welds on the aft bulkhead of the vehicle's Centaur upper stage. ILS and Lockheed Martin, the company that builds the Atlas 5, said they will replace the Centaur with a completed model currently in a Denver factory. No new launch date was announced. The launch is critical for Hellas-Sat, a Greek-Cypriot company, because the satellite needs to be in orbit by this spring or else Greece will lose the rights to that orbital slot. ILS shuffled its launch schedule last fall in order to accommodate Hellas-Sat, shifting the Nimiq 2 satellite from that Atlas 5 to a Proton M. The launch would be the second for the Atlas 5, which Lockheed Martin developed as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

Related Links:

•  ILS press release