Weather stands at 95% favorable for the April 17 launch of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, according to the latest range forecast. At this time, cloud ceilings and ground winds are the primary weather concerns for a launch attempt on Wednesday afternoon.
NASA’s commercial partner Northrop Grumman is scheduled to launch its Antares rocket carrying its Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station at 4:46 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 17.
Loaded with 7,600 pounds of research, crew supplies and hardware, this is Northrop Grumman’s 11th commercial resupply NASA-contracted mission. It will launch from Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, on the state’s Eastern Shore.
High pressure will continue to provide pleasant conditions today to the Delmarva before moving offshore this evening and overnight. Another area of high pressure dips south into the northeast states tonight into Wednesday, forcing a cold front south over the northern Eastern Shore tomorrow morning, then eventually the Wallops area. Once the front moves through, winds will shift to an east-northeasterly direction and increase with wind gusts in the upper teens while advecting scattered low-level cloudiness across the range. Upper level cloudiness will also be increasing during the afternoon as a weak upper-level disturbance approaches the
Eastern Shore.
I can’t wait!!!!