A faulty ordnance line is being replaced at a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today, work that will clear the way for the planned Friday night launch of a powerful Delta IV rocket.
The United Launch Alliance rocket and its payload -- a classified National Reconnaissance Office cargo -- is scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 37 at 6:06 p.m. Friday. The length of the launch window is classified. But a notice to mariners issued by the Air Force 45th Space Wing establishes a launch hazard area off the coast between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The launch had been slated for 6:10 p.m. tonight, but engineers discovered an ordnance line that had not been installed properly. The line route commands to activate explosive bolts that hold the rocket to the launch pad. Frangible nuts on the bolts break apart at liftoff, freeing the rocket from its launch table.The weather forecast for the planned Friday night launch remains excellent. There is a 90 percent chance conditions will be acceptable for an on time liftoff. The only concern is a possibility of high ground winds. But the winds are expected to remain below a 20-knot launch limit.
The launch will be only the fourth for the Delta IV Heavy. A flight demonstration was launched in December 2004. The first two operational flights were launched in November 2007 and January 2009.
4 comments:
How can this happen? Who is in charge? Unbelievable, improperly installed????
It's only the tax dollar! Don't forget to cut Social Security but keep the big defense budget!!
somebody needs to get fired!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sorry I forgot to put a to a and b to b, because they used Chinese lettering and an A looks like a B in Chinese Mandarin letters.
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