The Air Force announced early Tuesday that the launch of the first Global Positioning System Block IIF satellite from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., is now tentatively rescheduled for Thursday between 11:00 p.m. and 11:19 p.m. EDT. Monday night’s launch attempt was scrubbed after an anomaly was detected with a thrust vector control system on one of the two solid rocket motors on the Delta IV booster during the final seconds of the launch countdown. That discovery triggered an automatic launch abort. Mission managers are now determining corrective action. Monday night’s attempt was the one of several since May 20 to place this satellite into orbit. (Patrick release)
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.