BAIKONUR. July 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The launch of Russia's Proton-M vehicle with a Briz-M upper stage and China's AsiaSat-5 telecommunications satellite from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan has been postponed until 11:48 p.m. Moscow time on August 11, a Baikonur source told Interfax on Monday.
"The AsiaSat-5 launch was initially scheduled to take place on August 10, but it has been postponed for 24 hours due to technical reasons," the source said.
Specialists began loading the Chinese satellite with fuel components inside the operations and checkout building of the space center's Launch Pad No. 92A-50 on Monday, he said.
The Proton-M launch vehicle and the Briz-M upper stage have already been transferred to the same operations and checkout building.
The control systems of the Proton-M rocket are currently being tested, and preparations are being completed ahead of the upper stage's docking with the adapter system, the source said.
A contract for the launch of the AsiaSat-5 satellite on a Proton-M vehicle was signed by International Launch Services Inc. (ILS) and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holding Ltd, Asia's leading satellite services operator based in Hong Kong, China.