Esa’s Galileo Satellite Launch Postponed to Dec 28 – Roscosmos

MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The launch of the European Space Agency’s Galileo navigation spacecraft from Russia’s Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan has been postponed until December 28, Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told Interfax on Saturday.

“At the customer’s request, the launch of the Galileo spacecraft was postponed to December 28. Roscosmos is prepared to fully honor its commitments on launching this spacecraft,” Davidenko said.

Galileo is the first experimental navigation spacecraft designed under a contract between the European Union and the European Space Agency. A total of 30 such satellites should be launched until 2010 under the Galileo space navigation program.

The second Galileo satellite should be launched from Baikonur in March 2006.

French specialists, who examined Galileo’s condition after preparations to attach it to the rocket’s nose part, found a defect in a service system unit, a Baikonur source told Interfax.

“The matter is about a fine adjustment engine, whose valve turned out to be not tight enough and through which helium leaked. French specialists are analyzing the situation and planning measures to remedy the defect,” the source said.