{"id":16357,"date":"2015-04-28T18:21:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T10:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/mexican-satellite-launch-grounded-for-engineering-review\/"},"modified":"2015-04-28T18:21:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T10:21:54","slug":"mexican-satellite-launch-grounded-for-engineering-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/mexican-satellite-launch-grounded-for-engineering-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican satellite launch grounded for engineering review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"File
File photo of a Proton rocket on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan before a previous mission. Credit: Khrunichev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch of a Boeing-built Mexican communications satellite on a Proton rocket has been postponed after engineers discovered an anomaly on a similar spacecraft.<\/p>\n

The Proton rocket was supposed to blast off Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Centenario satellite, also known as Mexsat 1, remains safely perched atop the 19-story rocket at the launch pad, according to International Launch Services, the U.S.-based firm which manages commercial Proton missions.<\/p>\n

ILS said in a statement Monday that the launch was \u201cpostponed in order to investigate an anomalous condition discovered on another spacecraft and to re-confirm the flight worthiness of the Centenario satellite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 11,739-pound Centenario satellite is based on Boeing\u2019s 702HP design, and it is one of three satellites ordered by Mexico\u2019s Ministry of Communications and Transportation to form an end-to-end national satellite network for military, national security and humanitarian applications.<\/p>\n

The Centenario satellite will unfurl a deployable 72-foot L-band antenna made by Harris Corp., enabling Mexican security authorities with handheld terminals to make calls from land, sea and air.<\/p>\n

Boeing did not identify which spacecraft had the problem that triggered the Centenario launch delay.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Centenario satellite. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBoeing believes there is no issue at this time with Centanario, a 702 satellite, that has been built for the government of Mexico,\u201d said Joanna Climer, a Boeing spokesperson. \u201cHowever, our normal due diligence practices leading to launch include evaluating any on-going in factory or on-orbit anomaly investigations for potential impact to that launch. This assessment is not complete for one anomalous condition. As a result, we have postponed our consent to launch Centenario pending completion of this assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials have not set a new launch date.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoeing stands behind its products and will take time to be confident in our consent to launch recommendation to our customer,\u201d Climer said in a written statement provided to Spaceflight Now. \u201cWe look forward to recommending launch of the Centenario satellite and a successful launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar Boeing-built communications satellite named Morelos 3 \u2014 or Mexsat 2 \u2014 is set for launch on an Atlas 5 rocket later this year.<\/p>\n

A third smaller Mexsat satellite built by Orbital ATK launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in December 2012.<\/p>\n

The Proton rocket and its Breeze M upper stage will guide the Centenario spacecraft into geostationary transfer orbit about 9 hours after liftoff.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File photo of a Proton rocket on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan before a previous mission. Credit: Khrunichev The launch of a Boeing-built Mexican communications satellite on a Proton rocket has been postponed after engineers discovered an anomaly on a similar spacecraft. The Proton rocket was supposed to blast off Tuesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,1968,4044,2646,3908,2110,1611],"class_list":["post-16357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-breeze-m","tag-centenario","tag-international-launch-services","tag-mexsat","tag-proton","tag-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}