Russian Space Firm Delays Satellite Launch Test Over Coronavirus Concerns

Russia's Khrunichev Center, which builds carrier vehicles, said Wednesday it would postpone equipment tests in South Korea ahead of the Kompsat-6 satellite's launch over coronavirus concerns

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2020) Russia's Khrunichev Center, which builds carrier vehicles, said Wednesday it would postpone equipment tests in South Korea ahead of the Kompsat-6 satellite's launch over coronavirus concerns.

"Control and fit testing of the transition adapter ahead of the Kompsat-6 spacecraft launch, which was due to take place in South Korea, has been suspended due to an unfavorable epidemiological situation," the company said in a statement.

The center's director general, Alexei Varochko, said in February that South Korea had asked to postpone the Earth observation satellite's launch from the Plesetsk space port atop a light-lift Angara 1.2 rocket until late 2021. It was originally scheduled for this year.