United Launch Alliance delayed early Thursday the launch of a three-core Delta 4-Heavy rocket – the largest launcher in the company’s fleet – until Friday to allow engineers more time to solve a problem with a ground pneumatic control system.
The launch company was planning to launch the Delta 4 Heavy rocket into space at 2:12 a.m. EDT (0612 GMT) from Cape Canaveral with a classified charge for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s satellite agency.
But ULA’s launch team stopped the countdown to give technicians time to fix a problem with a cone heater. Ground crews replaced two blown fuses associated with the heater to solve that problem.
But engineers who studied a separate heel with a “critical ground pneumatic control system” could not solve the problem in time to resume the Delta 4 countdown, apply the rocket and continue with the launch for closing the launch window of about four hours on Thursday.
ULA said the team needs extra time to evaluate and solve the problem with the pneumatic system. Assuming engineers solve the problem, ULA scheduled another launch attempt Friday at 2:08 a.m. EDT (0608 GMT).
There is an 80 percent chance of good weather for launch Friday, according to the 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force in Cape Canaveral.
The Delta 4 Heavy rocket is powered by three main engines with hydrogen and a cryogenic upper stage with long durability, and is set to air a top secret NGO espionage satellite in a geosynchronous orbit that spans more than 22,000 miles (almost). 36,000 kilometers) above cross. Earth.
The satellite, expected to use the Delta’s top stage 4 hours after takeoff, is believed to be the next in a series of “Advanced Orion” as “Mentor” listening stations designed to handle phone calls, data broadcasts, and other communications to distinguish from American opponents.
Following its standard practice of minimal disclosure, the NGO has not released any details about the design or purpose of the satellite, other than recognition of its overall mission for intelligence gathering.
Read our story example of mission for extra background on the launch and its classified charge.
The one-day delay in the launch of Delta 4-Heavy could push back the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a neighboring road at Cape Canaveral from Friday night until no earlier than Saturday at 19:19 EDT (2319 GMT). Confirmation of a delay for SpaceX’s next mission was not immediately available early Thursday.
The Falcon 9 rocket awaits launch of pad 40 with Argentina’s SAOCOM 1B radar imaging satellite, a twin to an all-weather surveillance platform for Earth imaging launched in 2018 on a Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The SAOCOM 1B mission will be Cape Canaveral’s first rocket launch since 1969 to fly on a southerly course to use its cargo in a full orbit around the flies at Earth’s poles on each trip around the planet. The unusual trajectory will require the Falcon 9 rocket to first fly south-southeast of Cape Canaveral across the Atlantic Ocean, and then bend its course back west in a straight bend to rock the coast of South Florida.
Known as a “dogleg” maneuver, the right turn will ensure that the impact point of the rocket never crosses Florida in the event of a flight error, causing the vehicle to return to Earth. The launcher will then cross the Straits of Florida and Cuba before placing the radar satellite SAOCOM 1B in orbit.
The first stage booster of the Falcon 9 will return to the landing at Cape Canaveral after completing its nearly two and a half minute fireworks display. It will be the first landing of a Falcon 9 booster at Cape Canaveral since March, following a string of missions during which the reusable Falcon 9 first stage landed on one of SpaceX’s ocean-going drone ships.
Official reach security officials began studying the southern launch route after a fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base – where almost all U.S. launches occurred in polar orbit – threatened facilities for launch and cargo processing in 2016. SpaceX chose to use the polar launch route from Cape Canaveral to allow the company to reduce staffing levels at Vandenberg in a period with a few launches there, Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX and chief operating officer, told reporters last December.
SAOCOM 1B was previously scheduled for launch in March, but Argentine officials called on the mission because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Engineers put SAOCOM 1B in storage at Cape Canaveral until early July, when engineers returned to Florida from Argentina to prepare the spacecraft for takeoff.
The launch of SAOCOM 1B was again delayed from the end of July because the range was not available for the launch, according to SAOCOM 1B team members. Sources said the delay was caused by concerns about access safety and overflowing with the high-priority national safety note in the top of ULA’s Delta 4 Heavy rocket on road 37B, a few miles south of road 40.
The southern trajectory required for the SAOCOM 1B mission will take the Falcon 9 rocket closer to the Delta 4 path than for a typical launch to the east.
SpaceX has announced another launch to move soon to SAOCOM 1B.
A Falcon 9 rocket is being prepared for launch on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, a few miles north of pad 40 and the Delta 4 launch facility at pad 37B. The Falcon 9 will launch the next batch of SpaceX from about 60 Starlink broadband satellites.
Prior to the delay of the Delta 4 Heavy Launch and the possible slip in the launch of SAOCOM 1B until Saturday, the Falcon 9 / Starlink mission was scheduled to take off Sunday at 10:08 AM EDT (1408 GMT). It was not immediately clear if the launch of Falcon 9 / Starlink could advance on Sunday, or if it could be driven back in a ripple effect from the delay of previous launches.
Brig. Gen. Doug Schiess, commander of the 45th Space Wing in charge of the launch range at Cape Canaveral, said Tuesday that the busy launch program could provide a “historic week” at the Florida spaceport.
The last time three rockets were launched from Cape Canaveral in the same week was in August 2001, when a Titan 4 rocket, a Delta 2 launcher, and a NASA spacecraft launched from various pads in a period of less than five days .
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