MOSCOW, (PNA/RIA Novosti) — The US asked to delay today’s launch of a Russian Proton rocket carrying an American commercial satellite after problems with one of its communications centers, a space agency official said Sunday.
The launch has been delayed until Monday because a US communications station in South Africa isn’t working properly, said Sergei Gorbunov, a spokesman for Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency.
The Proton-M rocket was scheduled to blast off tonight at 10.13 p.m. Moscow time from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
It’s set to carry a Sirius FM-6 satellite into space, bolstering the US broadcasting giant’s satellite fleet already transmitting radio across North America.