Sea Launch Delays Launch of Eutelsat 3B Satellite

Dry roll-out of the Zenit 2S launch Vehicle on March 29. Photo: Sea Launch

[Via Satellite 04-02-2014] Sea Launch has advised Eutelsat Communications to delay their planned April 15 launch of the Eutelsat 3B satellite. Sea Launch confirmed that during the final roll-out phase of integrated launch vehicle processing in support of the Eutelsat 3B mission, a discrepancy in the nominal movement of the cable-mast and the Zenit 2S launch vehicle lateral plate occurred while installing the launch vehicle onto the launch pad.

Sea Launch decided to demate the payload unit and the Block-DM-Sea Launch to resolve the issue by establishing the root of the problem and perform additional checks on the interface between the launch vehicle and ground support equipment connectors.