Posted inLaunch

MUOS-4 Launch Set for Wednesday following Storm Delay

by Brian Berger
MUOS-4, the next satellite scheduled to join the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System secure communications network, has been encapsulated in its protective launch vehicle fairing for its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: ULA

WASHINGTON — Weather has pushed back the Atlas 5 launch of a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite that had been scheduled for Monday morning.

The launch of the fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite was postponed Friday night because of a forecast of wind and rain associated with the now-dissipated Tropical Storm Erika.

The launch, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, is now scheduled for 5:59 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday, with a window that extends to 6:43 a.m.

Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. His reporting on the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident was...