Will Try Again Wednesday
ANN REALTIME UPDATE
01.17.06 1523 EST: In a move that didn't even
surprise the commentators at CNN, after six delays in the countdown
NASA has finally scrubbed the planned launch Tuesday of the New
Horizons probe. Strong winds forced the cancellation.
NASA will try again Wednesday to launch the plutonium-powered
Pluto probe... although high winds are also forecast then, as well.
NASA has until February 2 to launch the probe during the optimal
launch window, after which the probe will not be in position to
slingshot off Jupiter's gravitational field to cut two years off
the planned trip to the farthest reaches of our galaxy.
ANN REALTIME UPDATE 01.17.06 1325 EST:
Conditions are marginal for Tuesday's launch of NASA's New Horizons
probe -- the first manmade object sent to explore Pluto, en route
to the furthest reaches of our galaxy. Titusville is under a wind
advisory, with gusts of 38 mph, according to news reports --
which is near the upper limit of approved weather
conditions for the Atlas V booster.
NASA has moved the countdown slightly, now expected to reach
T-zero at 1:45 pm EST.
CNN is also reporting a
slight oxygen valve problem aboard the rocket, although it is not
believed to be a major problem and should not affect the
launch.
Stay tuned to Aero-News for the latest update on New
Horizons!
Original Report
If all goes to plan, the probe will liftoff atop an Atlas V
rocket at approximately 1:24 pm Tuesday, according to Reuters, for
its nine-year journey to the Kuiper Belt. The region is believed to
hold thousands of planet-sized objects, as well as materials
largely unchanged since they were formed at the birth of the solar
system.
"Studying Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt Objects are key to
understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system," said
Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, to Reuters.
Anti-nuclear activists are expected to gather near the Kennedy
Space Center Tuesday to protest the use of plutonium to power the
space probe, which will travel too far from the sun to rely on
solar power.
The ceramic plutonium pellets, which were created at Los Alamos
National Labs, are fire-resistant. They are also designed to break
into large chunks should the probe be damaged or destroyed during
launch, according to NASA scientists, instead of microscopic
particles -- which are potentially deadly.
New Horizons carries 24 pounds of the pellets, to power the
probe's 70s-era radioisotope thermoelectric generators similar to
those used on that era's Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. As the
pellets decay, electricity is generated to power the probe.
It could have been worse for the activists: at one time, New
Horizons was to be launched by a nuclear-powered rocket. Congress
killed that proposal, however, instead authorizing the $700 million
(a relative bargain) mission powered by conventional rockets.
Even if the probe doesn't launch Tuesday, NASA still has some
time before the launch window closes -- albeit not a lot. The
agency hopes to launch New Horizons before February 2, which would
allow the probe to utilize a gravitational "slingshot" off of
Jupiter to accelerate the probe towards Pluto, putting the
spacecraft there in July 2015.
Should the probe launch after that, it would tack on over two
years to the trip... and if it doesn't launch before Valentine's
Day, NASA will have to wait until next year to try
again.