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Technology Stocks : Broadband Wireless Access [WCII, NXLK, WCOM, satellite..] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (104)	4/25/1999 3:25:00 AM
From: Darren DeNunzio	Respond to of 1860

First commercial Ariane-5 launch delayed By Alexander Miles CAYENNE, French Guiana, April 22 (Reuters) - The failure of satellite makers to deliver their payloads when promised has delayed the launch from French Guiana of Western Europe's first commercial Ariane 5 rocket, Arianespace said on Thursday. ''Flight 119, the first commercial Ariane 5 flight, is set for the beginning of July. It has been moved from late May to provide additional time for the projected arrival in Kourou of the mission's two satellites -- Telecom 1 and AsiaStar,'' Arianespace said in a statement released from its headquarters near Paris. The company also said its next flight carrying the NewSkies television satellite for the Netherlands would be delayed, scrubbing its projected April 28 launch date. ''NewSkies Satellites requested extra time to carry out in-depth checks on the solar panels. As a result, Flight 118 is now planned for the end of May,'' the company said. Ariane rockets are launched from the European Space Agency (ESA) launch center in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. Satellite delivery problems have severely hampered the company's launch operations in recent years. After four missions between February and April, launches were halted until late August when no satellites contracted were ready for launch. The company ended the year at a frantic pace with five launches in the last quarter when the satellite backlog eased. ''We are always going to have the same problems with the delivery of satellites, we should have no illusions about that,'' Arianespace president Jean-Marie Luton told reporters in January. ''We will have to adapt our launch calendar with that of our clients who do not necessarily respect their contracted delivery dates,'' Luton said. Large communications satellites often costing well over $150 million must withstand the stress of launch and then operate flawlessly in space for periods now averaging 15 years. The more powerful, new generation Ariane-5 rocket program got off to a shaky start when its maiden flight exploded seconds after launch in 1996.