Atlas V Cape Launch Delayed until April 3

UPDATE: United Launch Alliance and the Air Force has delayed Tuesday evening's planned launch of an Atlas V-016 from here at Cape Canaveral AFS until a No Earlier Than April 3 launch, due to a suspect valve which was replaced and now is in need of more tests.

According to the Air Force in a statement (180309) released earlier this morning, "During the past two weeks, the Atlas V vehicle was rolled back into the Space Launch Complex-41 Vertical Integration Facility and the suspect valve was replaced. The rescheduling of the mission gives the launch team the time to ensure the WGS-2 mission is ready for a second launch attempt."

The Air Force's Wideband Global SATCOM-2 satellite is the payload which Atlas V will boost to a position above the equator, and is the next in a series of WGS satellites intended to speed up data relays to between two to four gigabytes per second, from around the globe.