Bad weather forced NASA to scrub the first launch attempt of the test rocket Ares I-X. They will try again tomorrow, Wednesday October 28, at 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT). The weather looks better for launch at that time, but not by a whole lot.
As it happens, I will be away at that time and won’t be able to follow the action, assuming there is any. Your best bets are to watch NASA TV, and to follow Nancy Atkinson from Universe Today on Twitter.
Image credit: NASA
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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October 27th, 2009 at 10:03 am
One can also follow NASA’s launch blog (click my nick), if NASA TV is unavailable.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
There is also a possibility to follow the launch at SpaceflightNow. They not only have a live ticker, they also have their own program running in a live stream, which is quite funny and probably more entertaining than NASA TV (they begin their show at 6:00am EDT).
Btw: And who was responsible for the scrub? An idiotic captain who couldn’t wait to see the rocket fall back down and shipped right into the recovery area.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Its easy to blame the cargo ship, but in reality it was just a bad day and things didn’t go well at all.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I was just wondering if there have been any experiments to see if fish can survive in a free fall environment. I had in mind a hydrophilic sphere, in which the water is attracted to the inner side of the sphere for the fish to swim in. O2 injected into the water would form a spout, transferring water thru the inner void and into the opposite side of the sphere, as well as any fish caught in the upwelling water.
The imagery is just compelling.
Gary 7
PS. The weather is wet, here in Georgia. Hope it clears for the launch in Florida.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:47 am
@Gary,
A fish might survive for a while but I don’t think it’d be happy about it. It likely would have major attitude control problems since its swim bladder would be useless.
My wife had one of those fat goldfish which had major swim bladder trouble. He just kept tumbling around, when he could move at all it was often upside-down or nose-down. He had an awful time trying to get to his food (he made some progress there by letting himself get caught up in the bubbler – after it threw him to the top he could sometimes grab a bite or two before his out-of-control spin took him down again). Generally his tail was completely useless, only his pectoral fins could give him any degree of control whatsoever. I would expect a similar effect in zero-G.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Phil Plait:
Err… what bad weather? Just a little drizzle! It’s not bloody cricket!
October 27th, 2009 at 11:13 am
FYI, for those having trouble reaching NASA TV online during launches, CNN.com runs a live feed of NASA events online whenever something good is happening (launch, landing, moon crash probes, etc.). CNN.com is not affected by the network bandwitch issues that always seems to cripple the NASA TV feeds when something interesting is happening.
The feed is not labeled NASA TV. To find the feed, just go to CNN.com whenever NASA is preparing to do anything watchable, and look for the related news item, which will invariably have a clickable LIVE tag that will open the feed window. It appears to be straight NASA TV with no CNN commentator present for the times I have used it.
You do have to watch a 30-second commercial before they patch you in, but it’s a small price to pay, and the feed can be watched uninterrupted after the initial commercial. In fact, I give CNN kudos for offereing the feed, and I hope the commercial pays the bandwidth expense for them so they will keep doing it.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:18 am
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/
is probably the best press coverage you are going to get about launch events. No card-reading-mouth-breathers like you get from the main news websites, no mangled factual error festivals you get from AP.
And there are embedded NASA TV links there to boot.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I’m just curious as to why Ares has to launch withing a certain launch window, since this flight will not be reaching orbit?
October 27th, 2009 at 11:28 am
It was agonizing to watch, didn’t get much work done this afternoon (for me, in Europe). Now I have no nails left to bite tomorrow..
I would guess they want clear skies to be able to follow the rocket visually as long as possible.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:33 am
“launch window”
They have to clear a range area, so no one gets hit by falling rocket. As that range area is also used for other things, aircraft ships, etc. they can’t have it indefinitely cleared. They instead arrange (with the appropriate authorities) a usage window for themselves. There may also be other reasons?
As for the weather, IIRC, as it’s a test rocket they need better than usual(?) visibility and also the need to avoid static electricity for the monitoring instruments, otherwise they could get “blind” parts to the flight.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:34 am
@MichaelL : the window has to do with commercial aircraft traversing the east coast having to steer clear of the launch range, ship traffic (Port Canaveral is a pretty busy place) and of course other launch plans that use the same personnel (range safety, fire, weather, etc.)
October 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Thanks Adam and Charles!
October 27th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I blame the future LHC for this as well!
October 27th, 2009 at 11:44 am
5. Ken
I forgot about swim bladders, (Darn it Jim, I’m an engineer, not an ichthyologist). Still, in a gravity environment, the bladder is necessary to keep the fish properly oriented, in relation to the water surface. In free fall, it seems to me that the fish could propel itself straight ahead, eventually bumping into the side wall, leaving the surface and wriggling thru the air, then bumping into water again. If the containers air has near 100 % humidity, the fish should be able to survive(its gills wouldn’t dry out). I was just wondering if the critter could eventually adapt to such an environment? I expect its pursuit of food would likely be a totally random effort.
Gary 7
October 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Isn’t that exact picture in the Augustine Report?…
October 28th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] Ares IX launch scrubbed, try again for Wednesday - Bad Astronomy [...]
July 5th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Very belated update. The Ares I-X finally flew.
Click on my name here for a YouTube videoclip of it.
(Assuming that works and anyone ever stumbles on this again. Hey, y’never know.
)
The test flight went well on 28th October 2009 successfully launched on that day – tomorrow as of this Opening Post, nearly a year ago as of right now – at last according to its wikipedia page. Which could of course be wrong but still. Dates the same on the YouTube clip linked here too.
Sadly the Ares program hit severe political trouble and currently looks like being scrapped.