According to a press release from Vandenberg Air Force base, an Atlas V rocket launch scheduled for August 2 has been further delayed due to instrumentation issues.
The rocket, which is carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload, was originally re-scheduled for August 3 at 12:27 a.m., but has been postponed to give technicians time to resolve a problem with uprange instrumentation that arose during the lead-up to the August 2 launch attempt. The launch is now scheduled to take place no sooner than August 14, base officials said.
“The instrumentation currently experiencing issues is a mandatory range asset critical to public safety,” said Col. Nina Armagno, 30th Space Wing commander in the press release. Armagno went on to affirm that, “public safety is Vandenberg’s top priority during launch operations, which is why we are taking this time to ensure our range instrumentation is ready to support a safe and successful launch.”
There are no issues with either the rocket or the payload (which many speculate is a spy satellite), and their systems are functioning safely and properly.