BAIKONUR. July 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The decision was made by the state commission at the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on Thursday morning to remove the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle, which was to have taken the European MetOp satellite, from the launch pad, a source at the spaceport told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Technicians have started emptying fuel tanks of the rocket," he said.
This means that the launch of the vehicle will be postponed for an uncertain period, and the new date might be announced no sooner than a week from now, the source said.
The vehicle with the MetOp satellite was to have been launched from Baikonur on Monday, but the launch was delayed several times for technical reasons.
The state-of-the-art MetOp weather satellite of the European space agency is designed to monitor temperature and humidity at the Earth surface, as well as wind speed and direction, and ozone level over the world ocean.
The satellite weighs a little over than four tonnes. ESA has plans to deploy a group of three such satellites in orbit, project's costs estimated at 2.5 billion euros.
The Soyuz-2 space vehicle with the Fregat booster is developed and manufactured by the Progress central special design bureau in Samara.