BAIKONUR. Nov 18 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - The launch of a U.S. AMC-12 telecommunications satellite from the Baikonur launch pad has been postponed until February 2005.
"The launch of the AMC-12, which was originally scheduled for November 27, has been postponed until February 2005 on request from the customer," sources in the Baikonur federal space center told Interfax on Thursday.
A Proton-M rocket carrier and a Briz-M booster that will put the satellite into its designated orbit were delivered to Baikonur on Tuesday, the source said.
Khrunichev space research and development center experts have already started preparing the rocket carrier for the launch, they said.
A GLONASS-M satellite, which has already been delivered from Krasnoyarsk, will take off from the Baikonur launch pad on December 25.
GLONASS (the Global Navigation Satellite System), which was developed for the Soviet Defense Ministry, began operating in the early 1980s.