Update, 2:45 p.m.: The launch weather officer has reduced the lightning concern at Launch Complex 37 from Phase Two to Phase One.
Update: launch controllers report an even closer lightning strike, within 1.45 nautical miles of the pad, but fueling operations are continuing.
A bolt of lightning just crashed down within five miles of a Delta IV rocket being fueled in advance of a planned launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Engineers reported that the area now is under a Phase Two lightning alert. Lightning struck 4.5 miles from Launch Complex 37.
Engineers are assessing the situation. It's unclear whether any electrical systems on the rocket might have been affected by the lightning.
Stiff winds are whistling and crackling thunder is rumbling out here at the Cape. Dark clouds are hovering low.
The 206-foot-tall rocket was exposed to the elements after a 34-story mobile service tower was backed away from the vehicle early this morning. The Delta IV is surrounded by a lightning protection system. The system is made up of catenary wires that are strung between lightning protection towers.
The lightning strike was recorded about 20 minutes after engineers started loading supercold propellants into tanks aboard the rocket.
A Phase One lightning warning -- which means conditions are conducive to lightning -- was issued prior to the start of fueling.
Safety rules state that fuel-loading operations can be started during a Phase One Lightning warning but not a Phase Two lightning warning.
However, if propellant-loading already is under way, then it can continue in the event a Phase Two warning is issued.
So the start-up of tanking operations was within the limits of safety rules, and it also preserved a launch opportunity later today.
Mission managers expect the weather to clear around 6 p.m.
The launch window today extends from 6:14 p.m. through 7:14 p.m.
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