A 2011 file photo of an Ariane 5 rocket rolling out to the launch pad. Credit: Arianespace

RIO DE JANEIRO — The scheduled April 15 launch of an Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket carrying telecommunications satellites for the French and Italian militaries and commercial operator Telenor has been postponed for about 10 days following a defective cryogenic cable connecting the rocket and the launch pad, launch provider Arianespace said.

Logos for the launch's two passengers —Thor 7 and Sicral 2 — are installed on the Ariane 5 payload fairing. Credit: Arianespace
Logos for the launch’s two passengers —Thor 7 and Sicral 2 — are installed on the Ariane 5 payload fairing. Credit: Arianespace
Logos for the launch’s two passengers —Thor 7 and Sicral 2 — are installed on the Ariane 5 payload fairing. Credit: Arianespace

Evry, France-based Arianespace said it would announce a new launch date in the coming days.

The launch, which will be the first of up to seven Ariane 5 liftoffs planned this year, will carry the French-Italian Sicral 2 telecommunications satellite, which carries separate payloads for each of the two nations’ military services. Also aboard is the Thor 7 commercial telecommunications satellite owned by Telenor Satellite Broadcasting of Norway.

For Sicral 2 prime contractor Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, the delay might force a juggling of launch teams. Another of the company’s satellites, for the government of Turkmenistan, is awaiting a late April launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida — a launch that had been delayed from March.

In an April 14 statement, Arianespace said the problem was noticed during the launcher’s roll-out to the launch pad and concerns a line connecting the rocket’s cryogenic upper stage with the launch pad. The company said the defective part would be replaced.

Peter B. de Selding was the Paris bureau chief for SpaceNews.