This is why launch pads have lightning towers.
Lightning crackled proper now (Aug. 27) over Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which might host the extraordinarily anticipated liftoff of the corporate’s Artemis 1 moon mission on Monday morning (Aug. 29).
The bolts obtained right here close to the Artemis 1 stack — a Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket topped by an Orion crew capsule — with plenty of even hitting Pad 39B’s lightning towers.
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Lightning strikes subsequent to Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center plenty of moments previously as NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Artemis I await their Monday launch all through a two-hour window opening at 8:33 a.m. EDT. pic.twitter.com/UsfBX1Q2u8August 27, 2022
There’s no set off for alarm; the towers had been doing their job, shunting dangerous strikes away from useful spaceflight {{hardware}}. One of 39B’s three towers was equally struck in early April all through an Artemis 1 fueling check out, as an example, and the SLS and Orion emerged unscathed.
Artemis 1 is the first mission of NASA’s Artemis program of lunar exploration, along with the debut flight of the SLS. The extremely efficient rocket will launch Orion on an uncrewed mission to lunar orbit that may remaining six weeks from liftoff to splashdown. The most necessary goal is to exhibit that every cars are ready to start out out launching astronauts to the moon and totally different deep-space areas.
The local weather shouldn’t be good on the Space Coast proper now, as a result of the lightning strikes current. But it’s anticipated to clear up considerably by launch day; local weather forecasters with the U.S. Space Force say there’s a 70% likelihood that Mother Nature will cooperate on Monday morning.
If the local weather or technical factors nix that liftoff strive, nonetheless, NASA has two backup options inside the current launch window to shoot for — Sept. 2 and Sept. 5.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a information regarding the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
