Poor weather pushes back SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch – News 13 Orlando

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Concerns about poor weather conditions have forced SpaceX to push back Wednesday nights Falcon Heavy launch of communications satellites.

On Wednesday afternoon, the California-space company announced on Twitter that it would push its launch to Thursday night due to weather concerns.

On Wednesday, the 45th Weather Squadron gave only a 50% chance of good launch weather, citing the main concerns against the liftoff as the anvil cloud rule, surface electric fields rule and the cumulus cloud rule.

With the additional upper-level support, a few showers or storms lingering in the vicinity cant be ruled out, however the main weather concern will be associated with any anvil clouds streaming back across the Spaceport from ongoing convection to the west, the 45th Weather Squadron reported.

The agency has not given its forecast for Thursday nights launch, but SpaceX officials said that the weather is 60% favorable.

When the ViaSat-3 Americas mission does launch, it will be from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The 57-minute launch window opens at 7:29 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Originally, the mission was scheduled to go up on Tuesday, April 18, but it was pushed back to Wednesday, April 26.

SpaceX officials said the booster for this mission has been around the block.

One of the side boosters on this mission previously supported Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, KPLO, and three Starlink missions, and the second previously supported launch of Arabsat-6A and STP-2, stated SpaceX.

SpaceX will not attempt to collect or land the booster for this mission.

Global communications company Viasats broadband communications satellite ViaSat-3 Americas will be sent to a geostationary orbit thanks to SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket.

The satellite will provide internet and communication services to parts of North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific, stated the California-based company.

The first two ViaSat satellites lifted off in 2011 and 2017.

The 6-metric-ton ViaSat-3 Americas satellite is expected to deliver one terabit of data per second with anticipated download speeds of 100+ megabits per second.

In addition to the ViaSat-3 satellite, Astranis' first MicroGEO satellite and Gravity Spaces G-Space 1 satellite will also be onboard the Falcon Heavy.

Astranis, based in California, is sending its first MicroGEO communications satellite into a geostationary orbit.

The Washington state-based Gravity Spaces satellite will provide communication and internet services.

Read more here:

Poor weather pushes back SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch - News 13 Orlando

Related Posts

Comments are closed.