MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax) - The launch of the Intelsat DLA2 (Intelsat 31) satellite on board a Proton-M launch vehicle coupled with a Briz-M upper stage from the Baikonur space center has been postponed indefinitely.
"As of 17 May, the launch of Intelsat 31 is on hold temporarily. A new launch date will be announced shortly," the Intelsat website says.
It was reported earlier that technical specialists managed to eliminate a defect in the Briz-M upper stage integrated with the Proton-M launch vehicle, which is supposed to put the Intelsat DLA2 (Intelsat 31) satellite into orbit.
"The defect in the upper stage has been corrected, and now its cause must be identified. Only then will the vehicle's launch be sanctioned," a source at Baikonur told Interfax on Tuesday.
If the specialists at the space center succeed in detecting the chain of events that prompted the malfunction on their own, the launch might still take place in early June, he said.
The launch of the Proton-M vehicle was originally slated for May 28 and was then postponed to May 31.
If specialists from the Khrunichev Space Center, the manufacturer of the Proton-M vehicle and the Briz-M upper stage, fail to ascertain the reasons behind the malfunctions in the near future, the upper stage will have to be returned to the production facility for repairs, the source at Baikonur told Interfax.
In this case, the launch might be postponed for up to a month and a half. For the time being, specialists are working to identify the defect and consider options for its elimination.
The work on the Proton/Intelsat 31 launch program was started at the Baikonur space center at the end of April, when an Intelsat 31, usually referred to as DLA2, was delivered there.
The satellite, Intelsat DLA2, was built by U.S. Space Systems Loral under a contract with the U.S. satellite communication operator Intelsat S.A.
The satellite's weight is 6,320 kilos; it carries 10 C-band transponders and 72 Ku-band transponders. The satellite should be put into a geostationary orbit at 95 degrees west longitude, from which it is supposed to provide direct television broadcast and communication services in Latin America for 15 years.