SMART-1 Launch Delayed
13 August 2003
Late on the afternoon of August 12th Arianespace announced a delay to Flight 162 and the launch of SMART-1 on its journey to the moon.The delay of exactly 6 days means the launch has been put back from 23:04 UT on the 28th August to 23:04 UT on the 3rd September.
As well as carrying SMART-1, Flight 162 will also launch two commercial satellites: INSAT-3E for India and Eutelsat's e-BIRD. The delay is necessary to allow one of the commercial satellites to undergo additional verification tests.
The preparation of the Ariane-5 launcher has continued on schedule with the assembly of the lower part completed. It is now located in the final assembly building and is ready to receive its precious cargo.
Meanwhile the preparation for the launch of SMART-1 continues. The Flight Operations team are currently at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany. They have been conducting a number of simulations relating to the initial orbital operations of the satellite.
More details can be found under the SMART-1 Launch campaign.