Hanna and Hubble
Published on Sep 1, 2008 at 6:31 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA, space shuttle, space telescopes.
STS-125 is scheduled to launch October 8 on the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. That is a delay from a September launch that had originally been planned. But, in order to launch, the Space Shuttle Atlantis has to be rolled out to the launch pad. That should be happening any day now. However, preparations for this mission have been delayed. First, tropical storm Fay was a bother as it wandered back and forth across Florida. It did not do any significant damage to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), but it was enough to put a damper on launch preparations for a short while. That didn’t delay things much, though, and should have had no impact on the launch date. But, now there is another threat. Hurricane Hanna is now threatening the mission.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s forecast, Hanna should be passing offshore near Cape Canaveral late Thursday or early Friday. The storm is not expected to make landfall in Florida, but even so it can pose a threat to the KSC. Hurricanes are big. The winds, rain, tornadoes, etc. extend many miles from the center of the storm. If Hanna follows the projected path, then the launch pads at KSC would have a very good likelihood of facing tropical storm force winds.
Naturally, NASA would not want the Space Shuttle to be sitting out on the launch pad in a big storm. And, hurricanes are notorious for shifting paths from where they are predicted to go. So, even if the hurricane is projected to miss the Cape, then the safe course of action would be for the spacecraft to be in the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building. According to Spaceflight Now, NASA has already decided to delay the roll out for Atlantis at least 24 hours to Wednesday. I am pretty confident that they’ll delay it even longer if Hanna follows anything like its projected path. While some time can be made up, delaying the roll out long enough would eventually delay the launch date. And, following right on Hanna’s heals is tropical storm Ike, which may well become a hurricane soon. Its projected path puts it in the Bahamas in a few days. NASA won’t want the Shuttle to be rolled out until Ike’s path is known better.
Hurricanes thwarting NASA’s launch plans are nothing new. Cape Canaveral is located on the Atlantic coast of Florida. That makes it right in the way of many storms. A truly major storm has not hit the cape since launch operations began there, but that is likely merely a statistical fluke rather than anything having to do with hurricanes and geography. Plenty of storms have passed by the Cape, and launches have been delayed. Storms have damaged facilities at KSC. So, with Cape Canaveral being so exposed to dangerous storms, you might wonder why the United States built its premier spaceport right there. The reason is simple. The Kennedy Space Center was built where it was, in part, because it is adjacent to the Air Force’s Patrick Air Force Base, the home of the Air Force’s Eastern Range. The Air Force built missile test facilities there because of Cape Canaveral’s geography. Many of the early rockets tended to blow up, go off course, or have unexpected engine shutdowns. So, it made sense to launch these rockets from someplace safe. At first, rockets were launched in the desert Southwestern part of the United States, but that was only feasible for short range rockets. Once longer range rockets were being tested, there was no good way to launch them from those early sites without overflying populated areas. But flights over the ocean avoided that problem. And, Cape Canaveral juts out into the Atlantic so that rockets could be launched without flying overhead anybody even if they went off course somewhat at launch. It made the perfect place to test fire missiles. NASA used those facilities to launch the rockets for the Mercury and Gemini programs. Apollo 7 was also launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. So, building the launch pads for the giant Saturn V rockets next door made a lot of sense. Following the end of the Apollo program, those facilities were converted to be used for the Space Shuttle program, and after the Space Shuttle fleet is retired, they’ll be used for Ares launches.
And, of course, launches will still have to dodge tropical storms and hurricanes.
-Astroprof
Harry Knopp on September 5, 2008 at 1:32 pm: 1
An easy way to track Hanna is with http://www.USAMediaGuide.com. It has a special section of links to Hanna’s projected path, National Hurricane Center and local news coverage, hurricane preparation tips, live streaming webcams, and other Hanna-related stuff.