spacetoday.net: First Taurus 2 launch postponed to 2012

Posted: Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 8:44 AM ET (1244 GMT)
Taurus 2 illustration (OSC)

The inaugural launch of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus 2 rocket has been pushed back to early 2012 due to construction delays at its Virginia spaceport. Orbital announced in an earnings release Thursday that the launch, which had been planned for the end of this year from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, will now take place in late February or early March. Orbital blamed "continued delays in completing construction and certification" for the delay. That launch will carry a test payload, and will be followed a couple months later by the first launch of Orbital's Cygnus cargo spacecraft on a demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Despite the delay the company overall reported a strong fiscal third quarter, with net income of $16.5 million on revenues of $342.2 million, both higher than the same quarter of last year.