Posted: Tue, Feb 19, 2002, 8:17 PM ET (0117 GMT)
An Ariane 4 launch scheduled for the early morning hours Wednesday has been delayed three days because of minor issues with the booster, Arianespace announced Tuesday. The launch of Intelsat 904 on an Ariane 44L was scheduled for 1:59 am EST (0659 GMT) Wednesday from Kourou, French Guiana, but Arianespace officials announced midday Tuesday that the launch would be delayed until the same time on Saturday. An Arianespace statement said that the delay was due to "additional work on the [payload] fairing", but Spaceflight Now reported that launch preparations had been behind schedule since last week, with the satellite delivered to the launch pad as late as Monday. Despite the delay, Arianespace said it is still planning to launch an Ariane 5 carrying ESA's Envisat earth sciences satellite on February 28.

Related Links:

•  Arianespace press release
•  Spaceflight Now launch status center