MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2019) The launch of four telecoms satellites of the O3b constellation from the Kourou space center using the Russian-made Soyuz-ST carrier rocket has been postponed for three days from March 26 to March 29, a Russian space industry source told Sputnik.
The constellation is owned and operated by O3b Networks, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SES S.A., the world's leading satellite operator with more than 50 satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 12 in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).�
"Following the rescheduling of the launch of the first six British OneWeb communication satellites from February 20 to February 28, the launch of four O3b satellites was postponed from March 26 to March 29," the source said.
The launch of OneWeb satellites was originally planned for February 20, but it was postponed to February 27 due to the discovery of a seam rupture in a pipeline that supplies helium to fuel tanks of the Fregat booster on the Soyuz-ST carrier rocket at the end of January during the launch preparation at the Kourou cosmodrome.
Then the launch was postponed once more to February 28 due to the non-nominal behavior of the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket when the Egyptian EgyptSat-A satellite was launched on February 21.
