The weather forecast around Cape Canaveral looks favorable for the upcoming launch of United Launch Alliance's three-core Delta IV Heavy rocket, the Space Force said Sunday.
Teams at Launch Complex 37 will likely see 70% "go" conditions for the planned 2:16 a.m. Wednesday liftoff, forecasters said, noting that cumulus clouds were the main concern. If additional time is needed to troubleshoot technical issues or work around weather constraints, the launch window will remain open until 6:25 a.m.
Despite the fact that impacts from Tropical Storm Laura aren't expected on the Space Coast, the 45th Weather Squadron said it could still bring about slight pressure changes and pull moisture away from Florida while the rocket is rolled out to the pad on Tuesday. Moving into Tuesday night, rain chances could increase.
"Isolated showers over the Atlantic are expected to push toward the coast both Tuesday and Wednesday nights," forecasters said. "Therefore, the primary concern for both the launch and 24-hour delay windows is the cumulus cloud rule."
The rocket's mission: launch a classified payload for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office, which is one of the "big give" intelligence agencies responsible for space-based data gathering. Neither the NRO nor ULA are permitted to say much on the mission, labeled NROL-44.
Delta IV Heavy rockets are a rare sight for the Space Coast – the last mission to take flight on the three-core vehicle was NASA's Parker Solar Probe in 2018. Like its now-retired single-core Delta IV sibling, the heavy variant sports orange-and-white boosters and was developed for complicated, expensive Department of Defense missions.
Despite the retirement of standard Delta IVs in August 2019, heavies are expected to fly well into the 2020s.
Elsewhere on the Eastern Range, SpaceX is tentatively scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 about 40 hours later. Teams there are targeting around 7:15 p.m. Thursday to launch an Argentinian communications satellite to a polar orbit, a type of north-to-south mission that hasn't launched from the Cape in 60 years.
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support his space journalism by subscribing at floridatoday.com/specialoffer/.
"heavy" - Google News
August 24, 2020 at 03:33AM
https://ift.tt/2EaVInO
Weather looks OK for three-core Delta IV Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral - Florida Today
"heavy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35FbxvS
https://ift.tt/3c3RoCk
heavy
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Weather looks OK for three-core Delta IV Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral - Florida Today"
Post a Comment