Wednesday’s launch would have been the first time a private company sent astronauts into orbit. It would also have been the first time that astronauts have launched from U.S. soil since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011.
But Mother Nature had other plans, and astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley must wait a little longer before beginning their 19-hour journey to the International Space Station.
“We had simply too much electricity in the atmosphere,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday in a video message posted on Twitter.
“There wasn’t really a lightning storm or anything like that, but there was a concern that if we did launch it could actually trigger lightning,” he added.
The decision to scrub Wednesday’s launch was made with 16 minutes and 54 seconds left before liftoff.
The 45th Weather Squadron, located at Patrick Air Force Base, plays a large role in making decisions like these. A whole room full of military and civilian personnel closely monitors and tracks global weather to assure the conditions are safe enough to launch.
A quiet Friday for the 45th Weather Squadron. But, come Saturday, staffers expect the main operations center to be busy in preparation for the potential launch (Robert Sherman, Fox News).
“We’re looking at all kinds of information. We’re not just looking at, ‘Is it sunny? Is it cloudy? Is it rainy?'” Major Jeremy Rhomsco told Fox News. “Our big concern is the potential for a triggered lightning strike.”
Rhomsco says lightning does not have to be visible for his team to get concerned, and sometimes the most harmless-looking of clouds carry great danger.
“Even cumulus clouds can have electric fields built up inside them,” said Rhomsco. “You launch a rocket through that, with all kinds of exhaust coming out of the rocket, and the speed of the rocket, you can actually have a discharge — a lightning strike from the cloud to the rocket.”
Major Emily Graves, who works alongside Rhomsco, told Fox News that when it comes to clouds and lightning, there are ten different “weather rules” that must be met in order to launch. While each one has its own unique set of criteria, Wednesday’s attempted launch violated three.
She added that it’s quite possible that rules will be violated again this weekend.
“Some of the more common [rule violations] that we are looking at for this weekend are our ‘cumulus cloud rule,’” explained Graves. “That’s kind of a big one this time of year. We’re getting into our unstable season where we’ll see a lot of thunderstorms.”
Equipment used by the 45th Weather Squadron to monitor conditions (Robert Sherman, Fox News).
Graves says that 49 percent of scrubbed launches can be chalked up to weather, and 24 percent of all countdowns are affected by it as well.
Rhomsco points out that while the weather systems surrounding the launch site are of great importance, the weather must also be suitable beyond the Sunshine State.
“All the way along the East Coast,” said Rhomsco, explaining that the Falcon 9 Rocket and Crew Dragon Capsule will travel along this path upon launching. “Anywhere along that ascent corridor up through the Northern Atlantic where the capsule reaches orbital insertion.”
If something should go wrong and the capsule needs to return to Earth prematurely, rescue and recovery areas must be clear as well — which puts much of the globe into play.
With so many variables, both Rhomsco and Graves admit that the process can become hectic and even intense in the moments leading up to a launch — in part because decisions can be made with less than a minute to go.
“Sometimes we can go up to 30 seconds until the launch time,” said Graves. “And then, when we’re evaluating for our launch commit criteria when it comes to lightning, we can make that call up to 5 seconds before as to whether we’re gonna be a go or no go.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
