Jane Edwards
The U.S. Air Force has pushed back to Friday the launch of a Lockheed Martin-built missile warning satellite due to range and technical issues, Space News reported Thursday.
The Space-Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight 3 satellite was scheduled to take off Thursday from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance-made Atlas V rocket but was delayed due to a problem on the rocket’s sensors and entry of an aircraft into the restricted airspace, Phillip Swarts writes.
The SBIRS GEO Flight 3 satellite, which was originally scheduled to launch in October, will work to detect and monitor launches of missiles and nuclear weapons, Swarts reports.
The satellite’s deployment will mark ULA’s first launch mission in 2017 and serve as Atlas V’s 69th mission since the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture unveiled the rocket in 2002, the report added.
