The planned Tactical Satellite-3 launch set for later this month will be postponed because an avionics component malfunctioned, the Air Force announced.

Earlier, the launch had been set for last summer.

That latest delay will provide experts time to work with the manufacturer to solve the problem. When a new launch date is set, TacSat-3 will launch from the NASA Wallops Island (Va.) Flight Facility.

The satellite will carry three experiments:

• The Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager made by Raytheon Co. [RTN]
• The Satellite Communications Package provided by the Office of Naval Research
• The Space Avionics Experiment by the Air Force Research Laboratory

The AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate administers the program.

TacSat-3 originated five years ago to address military requirements for responsible, flexible, and affordable spacecraft operating in the cosmos.

The trio of payloads will offer real-time imagery (within 10 minutes of collection), sea-based information transmitted from ocean buoys and plug-and-play avionics to support the warfighter in keeping one step ahead of the adversary.

"We’re very disappointed in the delay, but the fix is necessary to assure the on-orbit performance of the satellite," said Thom Davis, TacSat-3 program manager. "Had we not discovered and corrected this problem, we would have had a potential catastrophic mission failure."

Project partners include the AFRL Sensors Directorate, the National Air and Space

Intelligence center, the Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space office, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Space Development and Test Wing, the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Air Force Space Command, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.