Bangalore: The launch of India's next generation communication satellite INSAT-3E by a heavier European Ariane 5 rocket has been put off to September 3, due to delays in testing the spacecraft at Kourou in French Guyana.

"There is some delay in testing the satellite that reached the Arianespace launch pad at Kourou in South America on July 16. Now the launch date has been fixed for September 3," sources at the Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on August 12.

The 2,750 kg satellite was earlier scheduled to be injected into the geo-synchronous transfer orbit on August 28, along with Eutelsat's e-Bird communication satellite and Europe's first ever lunar probe Smart-1, built by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Every satellite, which is shipped to a launch pad is put through a slew of tests including deployment of sails, before it is launched into space.

"The tests are taking a longer time," sources said.

INSAT-3E will carry 36 transponders including 24 C-band and 12 Extended C-band transponders as payload.

Arianespace announced in Paris the postponement of the satellite launch until September 3 to carry out "additional verifications" on the payload.

PTI