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Weather delays Iridium launch
Washington DC - April 30, 1998 - Bad weather has caused engineers at the Chinese Space Center in Taiyuan to delay the planned launch of the next-to-last Iridium satellite mission until Friday May 1st. Space officials were planning to launch the Long March 2C/SD variant Wednesday afternoon, but weather conditions deteriorated throughout the day, forcing the postponement.

Officials at the China Great Wall Industry Corp. set the Friday lift-off time at 5:22 pm Beijing time, or 5:22 am EDT. The launch marks the 14th in 11 months for the Iridium Corporation, and will see a pair of satellites marking 63 of a planned 66 in the spacecraft's six orbital planes. One last remaining Delta II is due aloft from the Air Force Spaceport at Vandenberg Air Base in California next week, completing the constellation.

Iridium will begin offering commercial mobile communications services this September, if the final launches are successful. Thus far, there have been no launch failures in the Iridium program of using Long March, Delta, and Proton space boosters. Iridium Vice-Chairman and CEO Edward F. Staiano said Tuesday in Washington the corporation was pleased with their launch service providers. "But after as many years in the space business as I have, you worry about every launch," Staiano said.

  • Iridium




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