Launch of U.S.-French oceanography satellite postponed

The launch of a U.S.-French oceanography satellite from California has been postponed from July 22 after engineers discovered contamination in one of the spacecraft’s thrusters at its factory in France. NOAA announced the launch slip Tuesday. Officials did not set a new launch date. “The launch of the Jason 3 mission will not occur July 22, as announced previously,” NOAA said in a statement. “During spacecraft testing, engineers located contamination in one of the four thrusters on the spacecraft. The problem thruster has been replaced. An investigation into the contamination will continue during the next two weeks, as the new thruster is tested.” More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 3)