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SpaceX to Launch Crew Demo 2; Weather Causes Today's Launch to be Scrubbed; Try Again Sat.

posted by martyb on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the rain-rain-go-away dept.

martyb writes:

NB: Video feed is live right now. Launch is scheduled for 1.5 hours from the time this story goes live, i.e.the launch has an instantaneous launch of 20:43 UTC or 16:43 EDT. See yesterday's stories about this launch and for a timeline and additional background information:

According to a tweet by Eric Berger (Ars Technica's writer on all things Space and Weather):

Updated: The plan is to press ahead with today's countdown. Significant weather concerns remain, but there's a chance. The crew will suit up, and SpaceX will continue to prepare the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon for liftoff at 4:33pm ET.

In other words, should the weather prove to be acceptable at the scheduled launch time, they want to be ready to go.

SpaceX may launch today, but weather is a huge concern:

For today's mission, we need to track weather both at the launch site for liftoff, and down range in case of potential emergencies with the rocket during the countdown or after it launches.

[...] For Kennedy Space Center and SpaceX's Launch Complex 39A, there are 12 different criteria near the pad that must be met before a launch can proceed. These include sustained winds of 30mph or below, no anvil thunderstorm clouds within 10 nautical miles, and various rules about clouds.

When the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida provides the official forecast for a launch, it is basing its percentage solely on conditions for a particular rocket and weather at the launch site. This morning's updated forecast for today's launch attempt of SpaceX's Crew Dragon is decent, with a 50 percent chance of "violating weather constraints" at the time of launch.

However, this forecast does not include several other important considerations, most notably ascent abort weather. This is a really big concern today with the formation of Tropical Storm Bertha off the coast of South Carolina and unsettled weather in Dragon's path.

You can check the National Weather Service's web pages for their Conventional and Graphical Hourly forecasts for Titusville, FL.

Assuming the weather cooperates, check out any of these live video links:

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:14AM (1 child)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:14AM (#1000038)

    It's the US taxpayer who are paying for this launch (and keeping Space X from bankruptcy).

    Seems like an odd definition of "privatizing space" to me.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:39AM (#1000112)

    If you want to launch stuff to space, and can pay, SpaceX will get you there. This is exactly what the privatization of space is. It enables companies who are driven by success to compete and thrive. And that, in turn, enables the growth of other private companies due to the public opening of space as a commercial destination. In the times of Apollo you, as a private individual, could not send stuff to space at any price.

    NASA is now a major customer for SpaceX, but they (SpaceX) are no longer dependent upon them in any way shape or form. SpaceX would suffer, but be fine, if NASA just disappeared tomorrow. By contrast the relationship has somewhat reversed in that if SpaceX suddenly disappeared tomorrow NASA would be in bad shape and likely end up left to continuing to buy seats on Russian launches which are now a days coming with a nice hefty fuck-you premium.

    If Starlink is a success, SpaceX will likely be lush with cash - which is awesome for everybody because I do think they remain ideologically motivated, rather than motivated purely by money.