NASA’s Solar Observatory Launch Fails, Yet Again
February 11th, 2010 - 8:32 pm ICT by GDBy Madhuri Dey
Washington, Feb 11, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The launch of a solar observatory by NASA has been delayed due to strong winds. The solar observatory was supposed to be launched with the help of an Atlas V rocket, unmanned, which was scheduled to be blasted off from the Cape Canaveral in order to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Following the failed attempt, NASA has commented that it would again try to launch the observatory on Thursday. The failure of the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory spells bad news for the United States space agency, as the observatory is being considered as the “crown jewel” of a series of satellites that it plans to launch.
Reports suggest that NASA had been warned on Tuesday itself that the weather might turn out to be unfavorable for the launch of the observatory. It had been predicted that there would possibly be heavy winds and cloud cover, which would be likely to affect the launch adversely. In fact, this is not the first time that the launch of the observatory has been delayed. A previous launch also had to be postponed due to poor weather conditions.
On Wednesday, NASA had to put off the launch for over an hour due to stiff wind. However, when it was finally decided to go ahead with the launch, and the countdown began, the rocket sensed a wind overload and shut down completely, with just about 4 minutes to go. The new solar observatory is going to be instrumental in the study of the sun. It will collect data for five years, and is capable of taking pictures at the rate of 60 images per minute.
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Tags: atlas, bad news, cape canaveral, cloud cover, countdown, crown jewel, dey, failure, Images, launch, nasa, poor weather conditions, satellites, solar observatory, space agency, stiff wind, strong winds, sun, v rocket