Air Force officials at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico are delaying the launch of Tactical Satellite-3 until repairs to a spacecraft avionics component, critical to the system's operational capability, are complete.

Although scheduled to launch in late January, the program team is working with the manufacturer to resolve the problem. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate administers the satellite program, known as TacSat-3. When ready, the TacSat-3 launch will occur at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. The satellite originated five years ago to address military requirements for responsible, flexible, and affordable spacecraft operating in the cosmos and consists of three pioneering experiments: the Raytheon Company-constructed Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager; the Office of Naval Research's satellite communications package; and AFRL's space avionics experiment. 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.