Launch This Morning - Atlas 5

[Eric Mc]

An Atlas 5 is due for liftoff in the next few minutes. It's being shown live on NASA TV.

[Eric Mc]

Holding at T-Minus 4 minutes.

[Eric Mc]

Scrubbed.

[ewenm]

Reason? Weather?

[Eric Mc]

Unable to verify if a C Band antenna was transmitting correctly. The antenna is vital for telemetry downlink of data so if the telemetry is not guaranteed, it's a scrub.

The launch manager said that they will need to look at the antenna and the transmitter to see if it is fixable on the pad or whether a transponder needs replacing.

[ewenm]

[Eric Mc]

Scrubbed again this morning due to bad weather. Trying again Sunday morning.

[marksx]

Is it planned for 08:00 Eric?

[Eric Mc]

Same time slot as today and yesterday, I think.

[Eric Mc]

Now postponed until Thursday, 30th August at the earliest due to a posssible hurricane. The whole assembly is being trundled back to the assembly building.

[Eric Mc]

Back on the pad this morning for another launch attempt. Due up around 9.05 am our time.

[Eric Mc]

Four minutes to lift off.

[Eric Mc]

Nice clean launch.

I always prefer launches that don't use those horrible smokey solid rocket boosters. For a brief moment you always get a chance to see a short vapour trail from the liquid fueled rocket exhausts.

[marksx]

Missed it. Bugger!

[Eric Mc]

I posted enough times about it. The Science Forum does seem to be a bit obscure and infrequently visited - which is a real shame.

NASA TV will be showing live coverage of the spacecraft separation from the Centaur Upper Stage in the next few minutes.

[marksx]

I did plan to watch it. But work got in the way!