Five
NASA probes will have to wait at least one more day to begin hunting for
the source of dynamic auroras after high winds above their launch site prevented
a planned Friday liftoff.
The launch scrub
occurred just minutes before NASA's
five THEMIS
spacecraft were expected to ride a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 booster spaceward
at 6:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT) from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in
Florida.
Launch is
now reset for Saturday during an 18-minute window that opens at 6:01 p.m. EST
(2301 GMT).
Unacceptable
winds were the only concern for today's planned space shot, which at times had
a 90 percent chance of favorable flight conditions at launch time.
Launch
controllers sent up a series of weather balloons during today's countdown to
monitor changing wind conditions.
"The final
weather balloon showed red for upper level winds," NASA launch commentator Jessica
Rye said.
The delay
marked the second this week for THEMIS, a $200 million mission to find the
origin of substorms in the Earth's
magnetic field that are responsible for the most colorful light displays in
the aurora
borealis, or Northern Lights.
Thunderstorms
and severe weather prevented the fueling of THEMIS' Delta 2 booster for a
planned Feb. 15 launch attempt.
Short for
the bulky title Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During
Substorms, THEMIS consists of five identical probes designed to circle the Earth in ever-higher orbits ranging
between one-sixth and one-half the distance between the Earth and Moon [image].
The probes are designed to spend about two years monitoring the Earth's magnetosphere
for the tell-tale release of high-energy particles that signal a substorm.
Researchers
hope the THEMIS mission will aid understanding and prediction of space weather.
The mission a cooperative effort between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland and the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of
California, Berkeley.
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