NASA scrubs Ares 1-X due to weather problems

William Atkins
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 20:33

Science - Space

At 11:20 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, NASA gave up trying to launch its first test flight of its new Ares 1-X rocket. The entire morning was besieged with adverse weather conditions, a ship in restricted waters, and a stuck probe cover.


The final decision to scrub the launch on Tuesday was due to bad weather, as stated by NASA's weather officer on the launch team.

The flight was hindered throughout the morning by worsening weather at the Florida launch site.

Weather Officer Kathy Winters continued to update the launch team on weather conditions at and near the launch pad. But, her forecasts didn't look very good throughout the morning.

Other difficulties also included a stuck 5-hole probe cover on the top of the rocket and a freighter traveling through the restricted zone downrange of the launch site.

The launch was finally called off for the day at 11:20 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) due to a storm rolling into the area, which would have been overhead the launch pad at the time of liftoff. Wind conditions were also not acceptable for the launch.

The rocket is positioned at launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, off the eastern coast of Florida.

In addition, an attempt to remove a five-hole probe cover from the top of the rocket during the countdown was unsuccessful for several minutes.

The cover became stuck, even though numerous practices tries had never seen this problem occur.

Although the problem would not hinder the safety of the mission, controllers were relieved (and applauded) when the cover finally slipped off the top of the rocket.

Page two talks about a problem with a freighter in restricted waters, along with further updates to be posted by NASA about future attempts to launch the Ares 1-X flight.