Orbital’s launch of its Taurus rocket has been delayed pending the resolution of a down-range issue with the south pacific island of Tahiti that could be adversely affected by the planned trajectory of the rocket. The launch will be rescheduled for a date no earlier than Saturday, March 4, 2000.

Onboard the Taurus rocket is the Department of Energy’s Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite, which carries a sophisticated telescope that will collect images of the Earth, during the day and at night, in 15 spectral bands ranging from visible to long-wave infrared.

It will give the MTI satellite the ability to ‘see” reflected and thermally radiated electromagnetic waves not visible to the human eye with performance parameters previously achievable only in laboratory settings.

The unique imaging instrument was designed and built by a government/industry team led by Sandia National Laboratories and was calibrated in a special facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

It gives the MTI satellite the ability to ‘see” reflected and thermally radiated electromagnetic waves not visible to the human eye with performance parameters previously achievable only in laboratory settings.

On launch day, the Taurus rocket will be prepared for its mission during a four-hour countdown procedure. Following a final launch decision, the vehicle will ignite its first stage rocket motor, lift off and follow a pre-programmed launch sequence controlled by its onboard flight computer.

A little more than 12 minutes after liftoff, Taurus will deliver the MTI spacecraft into a Sun-synchronous orbit approximately 310 nautical miles (575 kilometers) above the Earth.

Orbital developed the ground-launched Taurus vehicle to provide a cost-effective, reliable means of launching satellites weighing up to 3,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit, or up to 800 pounds into geosynchronous Earth orbit.

Taurus incorporates advanced structural and avionics technology proven on Pegasus and other operational launch systems. It is also designed for easy transportability, offering customers rapid-response launches from a wide range of locations.

Including its debut flight in 1994, Orbital’s Taurus rocket has carried out four previous space missions, all of which have been successful. The most recent Taurus launch occurred on December 20, 1999, when the rocket deployed two satellites – the KOMPSAT satellite for the Republic of Korea and the ACRIMSAT satellite for NASA.