NASA Aborts The Launching Of Eight Small Satellite Constellation

First Posted: Dec 13, 2016 03:38 AM EST

The launching of eight small satellites to space has been aborted today due to hardware anomaly and weather issue. It is rescheduled for 8:20 a.m. Wednesday.

LAUNCH UPDATE: Next launch attempt for our #CYGNSS hurricane forecasting mission is targeted for Wed. at 8:20am ET: https://t.co/KJwBfc3ies pic.twitter.com/Q1MYQnDRFc

— NASA (@NASA) December 12, 2016

NASA stated that the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), which will be air-launched with the Orbital ATK Pegasus XK rocket, was called off. This is because the hydraulic pump used to release the rocket from its L-1011 carrier plane had a problem, according to Space.com.

Tim Dunn, NASA launch director at Kennedy Space Center, said that they did a lot of variant troubleshooting in the air. He further said that everyone really wanted to preserve every opportunity to have another launch attempt today. He added that they did circle around the racetrack once, resetting breakers on board the aircraft, doing what they could in flight to get the system back functional again.

Tim Dunn continues that they did a lot of battle with the weather today and they could fly around and over and under a lot of precipitation and bad clouds on the way out to the drop point. He further said that they have a very dynamic system in Pegasus and it is a beautiful launch system to allow that type of flexibility, just like any other launch vehicle system that they use.

Tim Dunn then concluded that the weather might look slightly better for tomorrow. He said that they will be able to solve this hardware anomaly and then get their folks the necessary crew rest this evening to get back on a console in the early morning hours tomorrow.

The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS)'s mission is to have intense weather prediction. It will utilize eight small satellites that are carried to orbit on a single launch vehicle. It will examine the relationship between atmospheric dynamics, ocean surface properties and convective dynamics to identify how a tropical cyclone forms and to know its intensity. The forecasting and tracking methods will be more efficient and advance.