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NASA Delays Shuttle Launch Until Monday
rfunches writes "The Associated Press and the New York Times are now reporting that Atlantis will not launch Sunday. The delay will 'give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems. The lightning Friday didn't hit the shuttle — it struck a wire attached to a tower used to protect the spacecraft from such strikes at the launch pad — but it created a lightning field around the vehicle, NASA managers said. The launch, planned for Sunday, now won't happen until at least Monday.'"
They must have a video camera trained on the shuttle at all times. It would be interesting if they'd release the video or stills of the lightning strike.
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spaceflightnow.com has updates to the shuttle and all other launches coming up.
The summary talked about something called a "lightning field". As far as I am aware, there is no such thing. Can someone who is more knowledgeble about this tell us something? Or is it just a impressive name for a electo-mag field?
Seeing news move this quickly reminds me of the Futurama episode "Time Keeps On Slipping", where time was skipping forward by hours, days and weeks every few minutes.
LINDA:...Turning to entertainment news, teen singer Wendy might just be the latest
[Time skips.]
LINDA:...won three Grammys last night
[Time skips. The picture of Wendy behind her has a "2984 - 3002" caption below it.]
LINDA:...found dead in her bathtub.
My Computer Music Tutorial Videos
Still image from Camera 145. Still image from Camera 147
Video Real (buffering)
Video Windows codec
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
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a phone ringed?
The delay will 'give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems.
That depends. Do they consider sentient robot life to be a "problem"?
Push Button, Receive Bacon
A lightening field? That sounds like it would be beneficial to the shuttle or to any spacecraft.
:wq
What?.. What?.. WHAT?
OH! a lightning field... Nevermind.
wow
time is a perception of a being's consciousness
time is your 6th sense, the wierd ones are 7+
It's probably no worse than the extreme conditions it endures in space or during re-entry, but it sure looks nasty.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Of course, the episode title is likely a reference to an old Steve Miller song.
is that God decided it was time to smite Pat Robertson, but unfortunately missed by about 800 miles,... ;-)
The video reminded me of Mark Twain's essay, Political Economy.
I was outside our building once watching one of the rare lightning storms we get in this area, when a bolt struck the flagpole in front of our building, about 50 feet away. It was the largest explosion I've ever heard, not at all like regular thunder, just a sudden BOOM!!! that was incredibly loud. I felt deaf for a few seconds but as that faded away I heard constant ringing. Every fire alarm in the building was going off. And a number of our computers were damaged. My computer's serial port stopped working, and when I pulled off the cable I saw scorch and burn marks where the cable had been attached to the computer.
Apparently this was all due to the incredibly intense EM field associated with such a nearby lightning strike. I could well imagine that the Shuttle's electronics could have been damaged by such an event. IMO they should take it down and do a thorough inspection rather than rushing to stay on schedule.
Apollo 12 was struck by lightning shortly after launch. Aside from a few tense moments while circuit breakers were reset, etc, it made orbit okay and proceeded on to do a pinpoint landing on the Moon (within walking distance of Surveyor III).
And they're worried about an 80 msec blip on one bus?
(Okay, it doesn't hurt to check it out. If they do find any showstoppers it says something about the relative robustness of the Apollo-Saturn stack vs Shuttle.)
-- Alastair
So they put what's basically a lightning rod on the tower, like on any tall building - but they're still worried about the proximity of the strike and the resultant electromagnetic field and maybe induced current. Why not put a helium (or hydrogen for more fun) filled weather balloon up on an earthed copper wire tether about 100 metres away from the launch gantry, and about 100 metres higher. Cheap, replaceable lightning diverter and no more proximity problems.
Being struck on the ground is far worse, but you'd hope they have adequate lightning protection built into the tower etc.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Nope, you're wrong -- or you're thinking about conventional aircraft.
A Saturn V launch leaves a very nice path to ground through the ionized gas (flame) and carbon smoke (rich-burning kerosene fuel) trail it's pouring out the back end. That's why the thing got hit in the first place. To quote from a web page on the strike: "As the rocket accelerated through the low-altitude rain clouds, it behaved much like a lightning rod. A bolt of electricity struck the vehicle and traveled to the ground along the column of ionized, electrically conductive gases in the rocket engine exhaust plume of the Saturn V."
(Actually it was hit twice; the first at an altitude of 6500 ft at 36 seconds into the launch, and again at about 14,500 ft at about 52 seconds)
-- Alastair