Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington October 26, 2004
(Phone at Vandenberg Air Force Base: 805/605-3051)

RELEASE: 04-356

DART LAUNCH POSTPONED

NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. have postponed today's
launch of the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous
Technology (DART) spacecraft because the target satellite,
Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications, had a
temporary loss of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)
reception that might impact navigation accuracy for on-orbit
rendezvous.

While the GPS dropout has been corrected, the launch team
wanted additional time to verify the data. The possibility of
adverse weather also contributed to the decision to postpone
the launch for at least 48 hours, pending the availability of
range assets.

DART is a flight demonstrator that provides a key step in
establishing autonomous rendezvous capabilities for the U.S.
space program and the Vision for Space Exploration. While
astronauts have piloted previous rendezvous and docking
efforts, the unmanned DART spacecraft will have only
computers and sensors to perform all its rendezvous
functions.

Future applications of technologies developed by the DART
project will benefit the nation in future space-systems
development requiring in-space assembly, services or other
autonomous rendezvous operations.

For more information about DART on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info