The European launch provider Arianespace postponed the flight of a new spacecraft designed to hunt alien planets and four other satellites today (Dec 17) due to a glitch with the mission's rocket.
An Arianespace Soyuz rocket was expected to launch the European Space Agency's CHEOPS exoplanet mission (short for Characterising Exoplanets Satellite) and four other satellites from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana at 3:54 a.m. EST (0854 GMT). But 85 minutes before launch, something went wrong, stalling the countdown.
"The Soyuz launcher's automatic sequence for Flight VS23 was interrupted during final countdown operations at 1 hour 25 minutes prior to liftoff on December 17," Arianespace representatives said in a statement.
A new launch date will be announced once it is determined, the company said.
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The European Space Agency will use the CHEOPS spacecraft to study star systems already known to host alien planets. The mission aims to follow-up on past discoveries to better understand the alien worlds around distant stars.
In addition to CHEOPS, the Soyuz rocket is carrying four other payloads for Arianespace customers. The include the following below.
- COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation: An Earth observation satellite for the Italian Space Agency.
- OPS-SAT: A small cubesat billed as "the world’s first free-for-use, in-orbit test bed for new software, applications and techniques in satellite control," according to Arianespace. It was built for ESA by the company Tyvak.
- EyeSat: A cubesat for the French space agency CNES to study the zodiacal light, photograph the Milky Way and serve as a testbed for students.
- ANGELS: Short for Argos Néo on a Generic Economical and Light Satellite, this nanosatellite for the French CNES space agency and the Hemeria industrial group is the first of its kind in France. It "collects and determines the position of low-power signals and messages sent by the 20,000 ARGOS beacons now in service worldwide," according to Arianespace.
Arianespace's upcoming launch is expected to be the ninth and final mission in 2019 for the company.
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