European Ariane rocket launch delayed

Arianespace, a commercial European company has said in a released statement that they have delayed the launch of a European Ariane rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites. This was due to problems, which were encountered during final preparations. They did not reveal more about the issues resulting in postponement of the launch of the Ariane Rocket.

The original launch date was scheduled for Saturday evening from the European Space Agency’s launch pad in French Guiana, South America. The company organizing the launch has announced no new date. The Ariane-5 rocket has been developed to release one Spaceway 2 satellite for a U.S.-based entertainment service, DirecTV, and one Telkom 2 satellite for Indonesia.

This year itself has seen three Ariane 5 flights. Arianespace said in a statement that it would set a new launch date on Sunday. For now, the rocket and its payload - the US-owned Spaceway 2 and Telkom 2, which will serve Southeast Asia and the Indian sub-continent - remain in a safe standby mode at the spaceport.