spacetoday.net: Sea Launch delays return to flight

Posted: Tue, Apr 1, 2014, 10:06 AM ET (1406 GMT)
The first mission by Sea Launch since a launch failure more than a year ago will be delayed because of a problem founding during testing, the company announced Monday. Sea Launch had planned to launch the Eutelsat 3B satellite on its Zenit-3SL rocket on April 15 from its floating launch platform on the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. However, during a test while still at the company's home port in Long Beach, California, the company said there was a "discrepancy" while installing the launch vehicle on the pad, causing damage to a lateral plate housing on the interstage truss of the vehicle. Sea Launch will remove the satellite payload from the rocket while it investigates the problem and repairs the rocket. No new launch date has been announced, although the head of RSC Energia told Itar-Tass the delay would likely be one to two weeks. The launch will be the first for Sea Launch since the end of January 2013, when the failure of a first stage hydraulic unit led to the loss of the rocket and its Intelsat 27 payload.