MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The launch of Russia’s Soyuz-ST carrier rocket with five European satellites on board from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana was delayed from 17 to 18 December due to a detected control system error, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said.
The European Space Agency’s director for science, Gunther Hasinger, said earlier on Tuesday that the launch had been postponed due to a software error in the Fregat upper stage.
Roscosmos confirmed Hasinger’s statement that the launch was rescheduled to 08:54 GMT on 18 December.
The Soyuz-ST launch vehicle will carry the Italian CSG-1 Earth observation satellite, the French Eye-Sat satellite and the French industry’s first nanosatellite, ANGELS, into orbit.
The European CHEOPS space telescope, designed to study extrasolar planets, will also be launched on the Soyuz-ST rocket.
According to DLR, Soyuz-ST has three stages running on liquid fuel and an upper stage that can be fired up to six times – a system that enables the rocket to carry out complex missions to different target orbits.
Over 20 Soyuz-ST launches have been carried out from Kourou since 2011. This year, two launches were made so far.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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