Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1937
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 Immerman on Friday September 08 2017, @01:35PM
How is that sad? New heights are reached standing on the shoulders of the new normalcy.
How many people realize what an accomplishment it is to be able to fly across the country in a couple hours? Or heck, even drive 20 miles in a few minutes? For the entire medieval period, and probably a fair time before it, that was a multi-day journey, and most people never traveled more than 10 miles from where they were born.
Or even more impressive - how many people realize how truly astounding it is to have such a versatile energy source as electricity available at the flick of a switch, easily delivering light, heat, cooling, and many horsepower worth of labor for mere pennies an hour? To say nothing of nearly instantly communicating with people all over the world, and having the collected knowledge of humanity available at their fingertips for the asking (and then using that capacity to watch cat videos)
Compared to that, cheap, reliable transportation into space are unlikely to be anything of significance for the vast majority of the population. Not even when the price for a trip to orbit falls to $1000/person, instead of $1000/pound.