Converted Russian missile launch postponed to September

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -- Officials postponed the launch of a converted Russian SS-18 rocket booster carrying commercial satellites for the second day in a row on Saturday.

Officials at the launch site said the 1000 GMT launch had been postponed from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome because of engine problems. The next launch date was set for an unspecified date in September.

On Friday a programming failure caused an automatic shutdown just before launch, which was to have put five foreign commercial satellites into orbit.

Soviet-era SS-18 short-range ballistic rockets -- nicknamed "Satan" in the West because of their fearsome power -- are being converted under a joint Russian-Ukrainian space venture.

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