The launch of a $20 million satellite was held up for an hour because of technical problems in Bermuda.

This week's hiccup again highlighted the vital role played by the NASA Station, on Cooper's Island, in the US Space Programme.

The Brazilian environmental satellite was on board a Pegasus rocket launched from a B-52 bomber, from Cape Canaveral, on Tuesday.

The launch had been postponed because of rocket problems since early January.

But a fault involving the transmitter in Bermuda meant the mission was again set back -- but only for an hour.

Station Director, Mr. Steve Stompf said yesterday: "It was a major fault, so the launch was late. It was major in the fact that we could not transmit. It was repaired in time to support the mission.'' The satellite is designed to monitor the Amazon River and surrounding rain forests. It was built by Brazil's space agency.

Former astronaut Mr. C. Gordon Fullerton took off in the B-52 from the shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Centre.

He released the winged rocket, 50 feet long and four feet in diameter, a little over an hour into the flight at an altitude of 43,000 feet about 80 miles offshore.

The NASA base in St. David's is used to provide support in a "range safety programme'' which means it can divert the rocket if lives or property are in danger should it stray off course or other problems arise.

The base has had a high priority during the Space Shuttle programme over the last decade, tracking flights as they leave Cape Canaveral on the east coast of the US.

And it will play a major role in tracking the next shuttle, Columbia, which was due to be launched in two weeks but has been postponed until March, because of a paperwork problem that raised safety concerns.

Officials said Columbia would lift off no earlier than early March. NASA had been aiming for a February 25 launch.

Columbia's 11 -week flight is to be the second German Spacelab mission. The scientific portion of the flight will be managed from a German control centre near Munich.