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Continuing its breakneck launch pace, SpaceX is preparing to fly its 13th Falcon 9 rocket in the 2017 calendar year. The booster is scheduled to loft one of the U.S. Air Force's two reusable robotic X-37B spaceplanes. However, the fifth Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-5) mission might be facing a delay brought about by the powerful Hurricane Irma.
*Update: According to Florida Today's Emre Kelly, SpaceX confirmed the company was targeting a 5 hour, 5 minute launch window that opens at 9:50 a.m. EDT (13:50 GMT) Sept. 7, 2017.
According to the 45th Weather Squadron on Sept. 5, 2017, the weather for this attempt is anticipated to have a 50 percent chance of unacceptable conditions. The primary concerns are thick and cumulus clouds.
Should a delay of 24 hours occur, conditions are expected to worsen as Hurricane Irma approaches. This will create low-level winds that will strengthen throughout the day. As such, concerns for a Friday liftoff are thick and cumulus clouds in addition to strong winds at launch time. The probability of a weather-related scrub is 60 percent.
In preparation for liftoff, on Aug. 31, 2017, SpaceX rolled its Falcon 9 rocket – sans the payload – up the ramp at Launch Complex 39A to perform its customary pre-flight static fire test. This involved firing up the first stage's nine Merlin 1D engines at 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 GMT) for several seconds to throttle up to 1.7 million pounds-force (7,560 kilonewtons) of thrust to verify all was well with the rocket.
Ground teams then lowered the rocket and rolled it back into the nearby horizontal integration facility to attach the payload fairing with the X-37B inside.
SpaceX is streaming the launch on YouTube.
Previously: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/06/09/2236228
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 07 2017, @05:56PM (2 children)
You have to consider the payload. The amount the payload is willing to pay for a ride to LEO.
Humans are not willing to pay much for a ride to LEO. (Although evidence is that they will pay for a non-orbital amusement park style joy ride to the edge of space, and believe that it is the same thing as being in orbit.)
Nuclear weapons are a payload that is willing to cough up more money for a ride to LEO or even a suborbital ride, as long as the arc is long enough to reach the target.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 07 2017, @07:04PM
> Humans are not willing to pay much for a ride to LEO.
Really?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday September 08 2017, @01:23PM
As launch prices continue to fall, suborbital "joyrides" are likely to cease being notably cheaper than getting to LEO. At which point, why settle for a brief joyride when you can take a trip to an orbital "amusement park"?