NATION : Titan 3 Maiden Flight Postponed

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Tonight’s maiden flight of a Titan 3 rocket, America’s most powerful commercially developed booster, was postponed 24 hours because of a computer software problem.

The 1.5-million-pound rocket had been scheduled to lift off at 7:15 p.m. from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station next to Kennedy Space Center.

Mounted in a protective nose cone of the $100-million rocket are two state-of-the-art communications satellites: Skynet 4A, a British military relay station, and JCSAT 2, owned by Japan Communications Satellite Co.

But the long-awaited flight had to be postponed because of a computer programming problem that could have prevented one of the satellites on board from being released from the Titan’s second stage into orbit.