A technical fault may have been the cause of the original delay of the launch of Israel's AMOS-3 communications satellite, but engineers decided to delay the liftoff until after Passover in deference to a member of the launch team who is a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid.

Profiled in this week's Makor Rishon, Alexander Freedman, a Russian native who moved to Israel 38 years ago, has been seeing the satellite on its journey to final orbit since its launch Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The original launch had been scheduled for April 24. Speaking from his office in Israel, Freedman said that the launch was ultimately successful.

"All the messages that arrived [from the satellite] today and yesterday showed that everything is fine," he said. "Within a short period of time, the satellite will be able to start its mission."

Written by Yitzhak Hildesheimer, the report noted that despite the pressures of an impending launch, Freedman managed to organize a seudat moshiach, a final Passover meal that took place at a community center in Nof Ayalon. …