{"id":16101,"date":"2015-08-29T19:03:38","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T11:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/tropical-weather-postpones-mondays-atlas-5-rocket-launch\/"},"modified":"2015-08-29T19:03:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T11:03:38","slug":"tropical-weather-postpones-mondays-atlas-5-rocket-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/tropical-weather-postpones-mondays-atlas-5-rocket-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical weather postpones Monday\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8594\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8594\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8594\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/vif-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"The Atlas 5 rocket will remain inside assembly building for now. Credit: ULA\" width=\"620\" height=\"930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/vif-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/vif-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/vif-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/vif.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Atlas 5 rocket will remain inside assembly building for now. Credit: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Plans to launch a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket early Monday have been interrupted by Tropical Storm Erika, an unpredictable cyclone with its sights on Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been Erika\u2019ed,\u201d United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Officials made the decision Friday night to postpone the scheduled Saturday rollout of the rocket from its assembly building to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 41, choosing instead to leave the 206-foot-tall booster in the safe confines of the hangar for now.<\/p>\n<p>That, in turn, has delayed the Monday liftoff attempt until the storm passes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying the MUOS 4 mission has been postponed to due uncertainty in the weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Erika,\u201d officials said in announcing the delay.<\/p>\n<p>If the rocket was fueled during the countdown for a Monday launch attempt, it would take 24 hours before a rollback to shelter could occur.<\/p>\n<p>Complex 41 is an open-air. clean-pad facility without a protective service gantry, meaning the rocket would have to sit exposed to whatever weather Erika threw at it.<\/p>\n<p>Launch is re-targeted for no earlier than Wednesday morning. The workload and the predawn launch time mean rollout happens roughly 44 hours before liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>A Monday launch was timed to occur at 6:07 a.m. EDT. The launch opportunity moves four minutes earlier for each day it is delayed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you are like me, you probably have a bookmark for the National Hurricane Center website and take a look at everything that\u2019s going on,\u201d Dr. Walt Lauderdale, MUOS 4 mission director from the Air Force\u2019s Space and Missile Systems Center, told reporters at a Friday afternoon news conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe integrated team is following this very, very closely to make sure we don\u2019t make any decisions that could compromise the safety of our people or of the mission stack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United Launch Alliance rocket is carrying the Navy\u2019s fourth Mobile User Objective System mobile communications satellite. MUOS No. 4 will fill the last remaining gap to create global coverage for the military\u2019s new rugged smartphone system.<\/p>\n<p>See earlier MUOS 4 coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Our Atlas archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlas 5 rocket will remain inside assembly building for now. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Plans to launch a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket early Monday have been interrupted by Tropical Storm Erika, an unpredictable cyclone with its sights on Florida. \u201cWe\u2019ve been Erika\u2019ed,\u201d United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno tweeted. [&hellip;]<\/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":[724,3968,3973,472,3536,3537,3969,3539],"class_list":["post-16101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-056","tag-delay","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-mobile-user-objective-system","tag-muos","tag-muos-4","tag-navy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16101"}],"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=16101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}