The latest commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch today at 4:10 p.m. from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where all eyes will again be on the weather the closer we get to liftoff. The forecast improved this morning to a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time. Air Force meteorologists will be watching for storms or thick clouds moving close to the launch site.
Our continuous countdown coverage will begin at 3 p.m. here on NASA’s Launch Blog and on NASA TV. A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket topped with a Dragon spacecraft also built by SpaceX remains poised for space following yesterday’s weather-induced scrub.
The uncrewed Dragon will be making the sixth operational cargo delivery mission to the orbiting laboratory and is stocked with 4,300 pounds of material including items for 40 experiments to be performed off the Earth for the benefit of those on the Earth and to study the effects on astronauts of long-duration spaceflight akin to what they’d face on a journey to Mars.
Hello,
a question. What are the Towers that surround the launch Pad used for. I see them all the time and am curious . I am sure the answer has been given a lot but .thanks JR.
Those are lightning protection system towers that are designed to keep bolts of lightning from reaching a rocket or its ground support equipment on the launch pad. The towers are built much higher than the other pad structures and are connected to each other with catenary wires to create a cone of protection. The network is grounded to funnel any strike safely to the ground where the energy dissipates.
i am work in nasa and some change