{"id":21310,"date":"2025-11-24T18:02:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/when-weather-grounds-rockets\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:02:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:02:42","slug":"when-weather-grounds-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/when-weather-grounds-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"When weather grounds rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1500\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Artemis 1 scrub Saturday\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"32671\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2022\/09\/03\/artemis-1-scrubs-again\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"1500,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"artemis 1 scrub saturday\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: Seth Kurkowski \/ Space Explored<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/09\/artemis-1-scrub-saturday.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: Seth Kurkowski \/ Space Explored\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For all their power, rockets remain at the mercy of the sky. A launch vehicle can withstand hundreds of tons of thrust, heat that rivals the Sun\u2019s surface, and the vibrations comparable to a small earthquake \u2013 but a shift in wind or a charged cloud layer can still stop everything on the pad.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-43838\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weather is not just a backdrop for launch, it\u2019s an active variable in mission safety. Every rocket launch involves a complex interplay between atmospheric electricity, wind profiles, temperature, and moisture. Each factor has its own line in the \u201claunch commit criteria,\u201d the checklist that determines whether the countdown continues or holds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps the most dramatic weather hazard is lightning, both natural and triggered. A rocket\u2019s metal body and ionized exhaust plume form a conductive path through the atmosphere. If it climbs into a charged region of cloud, it can actually trigger lightning on itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Triggering lightning during launch was something that nearly ended NASA\u2019s second Moon landing mission, Apollo 12 in 1969, when its Saturn V was struck twice moments after liftoff. That near-disaster led NASA to codify the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria, which remain in use today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-43838',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"43839\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2025\/11\/23\/when-weather-grounds-rockets\/afs-8-101-27\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"1280,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"AFS-8\/101\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Lightning strikes were recorded at Launch Complex 39B at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 10, 2022. NASA\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher are in view on the launch pad in preparation for the Artemis I mission. The lightning strike was recorded by cameras stationed at the pad and mobile launcher using a special filter called a \u201cclear day frame,\u201d which provides an overlay of the raw frame on a reference image. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first woman of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243; height=&#8221;819&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243; alt=&#8221;&#8221; class=&#8221;wp-image-43839&#8243; srcset=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=300,240 300w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=768,614 768w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=1024,819 1024w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=350,280 350w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=140,112 140w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=1250,1000 1250w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/KSC-20220610-PH-NAS01_0001orig.jpg?resize=150,120 150w&#8221; sizes=&#8221;(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px&#8221;><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lightning strikes near Launch Complex 39 B in June 2022, several months before its November 2022 launch. It is protected by three lightning towers with catenary wires that redirect the lightning\u2019s energy to the ground. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under those rules, no rocket can launch through or near clouds that extend into freezing temperatures, contain precipitation, or are within a defined radius of recent lightning. Range weather officers monitor electric-field strength using field-mill sensors around the pad and radar to assess cloud type and motion. A single \u201cno-go\u201d reading in that network can halt a launch, even under clear skies on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But electricity is only one piece of the equation. Upper-level winds may be the most consistently troublesome constraint.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rockets accelerate rapidly through the lower atmosphere, where winds can vary sharply with altitude. This variation, called wind shear, creates bending and twisting forces along the rocket\u2019s structure. Too much shear can exceed design limits or push a vehicle off its intended flight path.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To guard against that, meteorologists release weather balloons before every launch to map wind speed and direction through the full column of air. The data is then fed into real-time trajectory models that determine whether the rocket can safely steer through each layer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Surface winds matter too, particularly for tall, slender launch vehicles, like the SpaceX Falcon 9, that must maintain stability during the first seconds of flight. High gusts at the pad can cause excessive side-loads or make guidance control margins too tight to guarantee safety. Even if upper winds are calm, strong pad-level gusts can force a delay.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Temperature and moisture add further complications. Extreme cold can affect propellant pressures and hardware performance, high humidity can cause icing when cryogenic fuels cool the surrounding air, and thick clouds or heavy rain can carry supercooled droplets or ice crystals that damage sensors or optics. Precipitation also signals turbulent, unstable air that can interact unpredictably with a rocket\u2019s aerodynamics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each of these conditions is part of the larger system that determines whether the sky is truly \u201cgo.\u201d SpaceX, NASA, and the US Space Force all maintain detailed weather models and criteria based on decades of data. The decision isn\u2019t made by intuition, it\u2019s made by numbers: wind thresholds, electric-field measurements, cloud-top altitudes, and lightning strike distances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So when you hear a mission is scrubbed \u201cfor weather,\u201d it\u2019s rarely about raindrops on metal. It\u2019s about the physics unfolding in invisible layers above the coast: crosswinds at 30,000 feet, charged ice in an anvil cloud, or a subtle shear that could bend a rocket\u2019s path by a single dangerous degree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, weather isn\u2019t the enemy, it\u2019s the equalizer. It reminds engineers and flight directors that spaceflight doesn\u2019t begin with ignition, it begins with the air itself. A rocket can appear to defy gravity, but it still answers to the sky. Until that sky is calm, the most powerful engines on Earth must wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lightning strikes near Launch Complex 39 B in June 2022, several months before its November 2022 launch. It is protected by three lightning towers with catenary wires that redirect the lightning\u2019s energy to the ground. Image: NASA Under those rules, no rocket can launch through or near clouds that extend into freezing temperatures, contain precipitation, [&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":[],"class_list":["post-21310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21310"}],"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=21310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}