While no hard and firm date has been approved by Navy space officials, late January is now believed to be the most likely target. The Taurus rocket that will lift the 300 kg. satellite has flown but once before, in its first launch in late 1994.

Integration problems with the payload and booster have repeatedly pushed the launch back, which was also planned for last October before the latest round of delays.

The Naval Geosat Follow-On satellite will fly the most advanced oceanographic radar altimeter ever put into sunsynchronous orbit. The sensors will sweep the world's oceans, gathering data for Navy scientists on temperatures, depths, amounts of vegetation, and ice accumulations in the seas.

These are all issues effecting ships on patrol or during military missions. The science data will also help meteorologists better understand weather patterns and potential causes of global warming.

The Geosat is built by Ball Aerospace Corp. and is a follow-on to the original 1987 plans, then aimed at anti-submarine warfare data. Changing geopolitics in the decade passed has shifted the mission more to understanding the ocean environment, and better preparing for blue water and coastal water deployments by U.S. fleets.