Bangalore, Sept 03: Delay caused in completion of the final checkout on Indian communication satellite -- Insat 3E has forced Arianespace to postpone its flight 162 to September 3 from August 28 from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guyana. The lift-off had been rescheduled following Indian Space Research Organisation's request for additional verification of the payload and systems onboard the satellite.

ISRO sources told media persons here that ISRO scientists at Kourou were racing against time to check both system and the payloads which included 24 c band transponders and 12 extended C band transponders to ensure their trouble free functioning. Though the launch could have been deferred by a couple of days, in view of the intervening weekend, the launch has been fixed for today. The launch campaign crossed another milestone yesterday when the Ariane 5 generic launcher was transferred to the final assembly building to prepare for the launch.

Besides Insat 3E, the Ariane five launcher would also hurl into space, the first ever European lunar mission spacecraft Smart-1, launched by the european space agency and an Eutelsat payload --e-bird, to be deployed for internet services. Arianespace had on June 11 launched Insat 3E's predecessor, Insat 3A and Galaxy XII by the 160th flight.

Bureau Report