NASA says there is a 60 percent possibility its Ares 1-X launch tomorrow will be postponed.
What’s nearly double as tall as the space shuttle plus boosters and tank, is NASA’s present best expectation for replacing the shuttles, and may not launch as planned tomorrow?
Yep, it’s the Ares 1-X. some delay has nothing to do with hardware — up to now so good on that score. The uncertain cloud on the horizon is the weather. But it is getting better.
Over the weekend, Ares 1-X weather watcher Kathy Winters pointed to a 60 % chance that the weather wouldn’t cooperate. The weather forecast for launch time tomorrow morning (8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) still suggests a 60 % possibility that the weather will go against the mission’s launch requirements.
Those requirements have undergone several changes over the past few years. One provision launch directors now have to deal with: The risk that the rocket will plow up all the way through clouds on its way up and smack into cloud droplets.
Those collisions will build a charge of static electricity on the outside of the rocket. For those of you who want to wow (or possibly ward off) someone at the next party you attend, go down the phrase “tribo electrification rule.” That’s what they call this rocket version of static cling.
That electric charge can hamper with communications between the rocket and the ground, because this is a test flight, nobody wants anything to block the flow of data from the rocket toward eager engineers back at the Kennedy Space Center.
And if the range-safety officer has to explode the rocket during its ascent because it is misbehaving in ways that make threats of there life or property, you want to make sure the explosives on the rocket has taken the delivery of the detonation command.
This is not a concern for the space shuttles. They were designed with this phenomenon in mind. Although the Ares 1-X is a different beast, and the rule has come back into play.
The excellent news: NASA has four hours to get this puppy off the ground. That’s a good deal longer than space-shuttle launch windows. The launch window for the previous year’s Hubble repair mission was 42 minutes and the window for missions to the international space station tends to last about 5 minutes.
The difference? Timing gets moderately precise when you are aiming to make contact with something else in space. However the Ares 1-X mission involves a quick up-and-down suborbital trip.
That four-hour window actually gives launch directors some scope in dealing with problems that may crop up. And it gives them latitude to waiting for a break in several cloud cover large enough to thread the rocket through.
If it is not possible on Tuesday, look for another attempt at the same time on Wednesday. The weather looks better for that day – only a 40 % chance it will go against launch requirements. After then, it’s off to the negotiating table to haggle with some other customers waiting to utilize launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center.
Yep, it’s the Ares 1-X. some delay has nothing to do with hardware — up to now so good on that score. The uncertain cloud on the horizon is the weather. But it is getting better.
Over the weekend, Ares 1-X weather watcher Kathy Winters pointed to a 60 % chance that the weather wouldn’t cooperate. The weather forecast for launch time tomorrow morning (8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) still suggests a 60 % possibility that the weather will go against the mission’s launch requirements.
Those requirements have undergone several changes over the past few years. One provision launch directors now have to deal with: The risk that the rocket will plow up all the way through clouds on its way up and smack into cloud droplets.
Those collisions will build a charge of static electricity on the outside of the rocket. For those of you who want to wow (or possibly ward off) someone at the next party you attend, go down the phrase “tribo electrification rule.” That’s what they call this rocket version of static cling.
That electric charge can hamper with communications between the rocket and the ground, because this is a test flight, nobody wants anything to block the flow of data from the rocket toward eager engineers back at the Kennedy Space Center.
And if the range-safety officer has to explode the rocket during its ascent because it is misbehaving in ways that make threats of there life or property, you want to make sure the explosives on the rocket has taken the delivery of the detonation command.
This is not a concern for the space shuttles. They were designed with this phenomenon in mind. Although the Ares 1-X is a different beast, and the rule has come back into play.
The excellent news: NASA has four hours to get this puppy off the ground. That’s a good deal longer than space-shuttle launch windows. The launch window for the previous year’s Hubble repair mission was 42 minutes and the window for missions to the international space station tends to last about 5 minutes.
The difference? Timing gets moderately precise when you are aiming to make contact with something else in space. However the Ares 1-X mission involves a quick up-and-down suborbital trip.
That four-hour window actually gives launch directors some scope in dealing with problems that may crop up. And it gives them latitude to waiting for a break in several cloud cover large enough to thread the rocket through.
If it is not possible on Tuesday, look for another attempt at the same time on Wednesday. The weather looks better for that day – only a 40 % chance it will go against launch requirements. After then, it’s off to the negotiating table to haggle with some other customers waiting to utilize launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center.
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