of the countdown and launch beginning at 5 p.m. EDT (9 p.m. GMT) if Lockheed Martin gets a green light for another attempt.The much-anticipated launch nearly was scrubbed because dozens of boats were motoring about in a restricted launch danger zone that covers an area of about 18 square miles off the Cape Canaveral coast.
The bill to U.S. taxpayers would have been: At least $150,000, or the cost to prepare the U.S. Air Forces Eastern Range for a fifth Atlas 3 launch attempt between 5:38 p.m. and 7:57 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (9:38 p.m. to 11:57 p.m. GMT) Sunday.
"We never like to scrub a launch for bad weather or whatever," said Col. Tony Cherney, director of public affairs for the Air Forces 45th Space Wing, which operates the range.
"But our primary mission is to keep the public safe. And if we were to launch that rocket with all those boats out there, we would not have been doing our mission."
A widespread network of ground stations that stretches from the Cape to islands in the south Atlantic, the range provides rocket tracking, flight safety, launch scheduling and weather forecasting services for all launches from Floridas Space Coast.
Strict U.S. Air Force flight rules prohibit launching a potentially explosive rocket if flaming wreckage from an in-flight disaster could fall on ships, boats or aircraft in a restricted danger zone off the coast.
The expansive zone falls beneath the flight path of a rocket and the Air Force goes to great lengths to broadcast notices to mariners and aviators in a bid to keep craft out of the restricted zone.
On Saturday, that almost became impossible.
Some 150 boats took part in a charity fishing tournament organized by former National Football League journeyman Cal Dixon, who was raised in nearby Merritt Island.
The fourth annual Cal Dixon Celebrity Offshore Fishing Classic at Port Canaveral this year attracted more than two dozen celebrities from the worlds of baseball, football, hockey and pro wrestling.
Among those on the celebrity list: Musician and "Home Improvement" star Mickey Jones, pro wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, former Cincinnati Reds slugger George Foster, American Gladiator Reggie "Tank" Biegler, former NFL player Ben Davidson, retired pro wrestler George "The Animal" Steele and Alan Bester of the Orlando Solar Bears hockey team.
Cherney said tournament officials were briefed on the scheduled Atlas 3 launch and the need to keep contestants out of the launch danger zone, an area that would be showered with flaming debris if the rocket exploded early in flight.
Some 73 of the boats, however, did not check in with tournament officials after the 4 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. GMT) end of the contest.
At least 40 boats, meanwhile, were spotted in the restricted zone by two Air Force helicopters and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter scouting the area in an effort to clear it.
"Its our understanding that the tournament organizers did brief the contestants on where they could be and where they couldnt be offshore," Cherney said. "They were supposed to be back in port at 4 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. GMT) to weigh their catches, but for some reason that didnt happen."
Current law does not provide for a way to penalize or fine operators of the stray boats because the launch was a commercial mission. Fines and penalties can be doled out when wayward craft in the zone if a U.S. government launch is scrubbed.
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