Posted: Fri, May 4, 2012, 7:46 AM ET (1146 GMT)
The launch of a military communications satellite on an Atlas 5 rocket was scrubbed yesterday because of a minor technical issue discovered late in the countdown. The Atlas 5 531 was scheduled to launch Thursday afternoon from Cape Canaveral and placed the Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) 2 satellite into orbit. However, the countdown did not continue from the planned T-4 minute hold because of a lack of helium flow from ground support equipment into the rocket's interstage adapter, a problem United Launch Alliance said was caused by a misconfigured setting on a valve. The launch has been rescheduled for Friday at 2:42 pm EDT (1842 GMT), with an 80-percent chance of favorable weather. AEHF-2 is the second in a new series of satellites providing secure communications for the US military.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Florida Today article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Flight International article
•  Spaceflight Now mission status center