Insat 4B launch deferred till tomorrow

Bangalore, Mar 11 (UNI) The launch of India's latest communication satellite Insat 4B was deferred by a day this morning following an anomaly noticed in the launchpad seven minutes before the scheduled blast off.

The satellite was to be launched by Ariane Five vehicle of Arianespace from Kourou, French Guyana between 0355 hrs and 0428 hrs today.

ISRO sources told UNI that the launch window has been rescheduled for tomorrow between 0355 and 0428 hrs IST.

Insat 4B was the second in the fourth generation Insat series aimed at augmenting the transponders capacity from three constellation of Insat satellite to 199 from the present 175.

It carried 12 high power Ku-band transponders for DTH transmission and 12 C-band transponders.

The Ariane Five, first for the year, was to put into orbit British spy satellite Skynet-5A, besides Insat 4B.

UNI