{"id":11013,"date":"2023-03-21T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/good-weather-expected-for-relativity-spaces-late-night-launch-attempt\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T22:26:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:26:00","slug":"good-weather-expected-for-relativity-spaces-late-night-launch-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/good-weather-expected-for-relativity-spaces-late-night-launch-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Good weather expected for Relativity Space\u2019s late-night launch attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Relativity Space\u2019s Terran 1 rocket on Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Relativity Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Relativity Space will try a third time to launch a 3D-printed rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday night, and weather forecasters predict a 95% chance of favorable conditions for the late-night test flight.<\/p>\n

The three-hour launch window at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station opens Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT (0200 UTC Thursday). Relativity Space will try to make history by launching the first 3D-printed, methane-fueled rocket into orbit, following two scrubbed launch attempts March 8 and March 11.<\/p>\n

Delays and aborts are not uncommon in launches of new rockets. Relativity Space shifted the timing for the Terran 1 rocket from the afternoon hours until an overnight launch window for the next countdown Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Relativity Space got within a half-second of launching the Terran 1 rocket on the second launch attempt March 11.<\/p>\n

The company said the countdown automatically aborted when a computer detected an apparent issue with the rocket\u2019s \u201cstage separation automation\u201d just a half-second before liftoff. Ground teams uplinked new software to the rocket to fix the glitch, then tried again to launch the Terran 1 rocket later in the launch window March 11. But the countdown stopped again at T-minus 45 seconds when computers detected a slightly low pressure in the second stage methane fuel tank.<\/p>\n

Tim Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space, said work to prepare for the next Terran 1 launch attempt primarily involved \u201csoftware redline tweaks,\u201d referring to preset limits that, when tripped, would result in an automatic abort by the computer controlling the final moments of the countdown.<\/p>\n

The mission is a demonstration for Relativity\u2019s Terran 1, a 110-foot-tall (33.5-meter) launcher designed to haul more than a ton of cargo into low Earth orbit. The Terran 1 is aimed at the commercial launch market for small to mid-sized satellites, making Relativity one of several privately-developed smallsat launch companies coming online in the last few years.<\/p>\n

Relativity Space has nicknamed the Terran 1\u2019s test flight as \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun.\u201d It won\u2019t carry any customer satellites, but will attempt to fly into a 124-mile-high (200-kilometer) orbit about eight minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

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Relativity Space\u2019s Terran 1 rocket on Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Relativity Space \/ Trevor Mahlmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Space Force\u2019s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a mostly clear sky, mild temperatures, and breezy conditions Wednesday night at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

\u201cFavorable weather looks to be in place for the launch attempt Wednesday night,\u201d the weather team wrote in a forecast issued Tuesday. \u201cExpect partly cloudy skies in the area so there is a slight concern for the cumulus cloud rule, but the overall coverage should diminish through the late afternoon and early evening hours tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forecasters at Cape Canaveral also expect a 95% chance of good weather for SpaceX\u2019s next mission, set for Friday at 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 UTC) with another batch of Starlink internet satellites. The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin SpaceX\u2019s 20th mission of the year.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Relativity Space\u2019s Terran 1 rocket on Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Relativity Space Relativity Space will try a third time to launch a 3D-printed rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday night, and weather forecasters predict a 95% chance of favorable conditions for the late-night test flight. The three-hour launch window at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1682,291,1683,25,1684,1685,1686,1687],"class_list":["post-11013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-3d-printing","tag-commercial-space","tag-glhf","tag-launch","tag-launch-complex-16","tag-relativity-space","tag-terran","tag-terran-r"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}