DART Launch Postponed

Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration postponed the launch of the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft yesterday after the mission’s target satellite, the Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-Of-Sight Communications spacecraft, experienced a temporary loss of GPS data reception that might have impacted the navigation accuracy for the in-orbit rendezvous sequence of events. Orbital said the GPS dropout has been corrected, but the company and the federal agency are waiting for at least 48 hours before attempting to launch the DART vehicle. At press time, no new launch time had been announced.