[Launch Alert] Launch Delayed

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 19:01:48 -0700

            ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

			           Brian Webb
		         Ventura County, California
		        E-mail: [email protected]
	       Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp

	  Reaching more than 2,290 e-mail addresses worldwide

				         2003 October 15 (Wednesday) 18:50 PDT
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                     TITAN II G-9 MISSION DELAYED
                        Air Force news release

(Vandenberg Air Force Base, OCT 15) This morning's launch of a Titan
II booster from Space Launch Complex-4 West here is rescheduled for
9:17 a.m. PDT Oct. 16 with a launch window of 10 minutes.

The launch was delayed after an air conditioning duct became detached
from the booster's payload fairing, or shell, which surrounds the
satellite atop the rocket. The duct is required to maintain
environmental conditions for the satellite before launch. There was
not sufficient time to meet the launch window after technicians
reattached the duct.

The rocket will carry a 4,500-pound Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program payload into low Earth orbit approximately 458 nautical miles
above the Earth. This is the first DMSP launch in four years. The DMSP
satellite constellation monitors the Earth's atmosphere and oceans
providing nearly complete coverage of global cloud distribution every
six hours.