What are the reasons why NASA has suspended the SpaceX liftoff and when is the next date?
NASA was forced to suspend the launch of the Europa Clipper mission which will travel to Jupiter searching for signs of life on its fourth largest moon.
The Europa Clipper space probe had to ride out Hurricane Milton sheltered in SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA announced that it was delaying the mission’s launch, which was scheduled for Thursday, October 10, in anticipation of the high winds and rains forecast in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions related to the storm.
“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program, said in a statement.
When will the SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff with Europa Clipper?
The highly anticipated mission, which will search for signs of life on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, will lift off “Once we have the ‘all-clear’,” said Dunn and the next launch opportunity can be determined.
First though, the safety of the spaceport will have to be assessed by recovery teams so that personnel can return to work. The same will have to be done for the launch processing facilities, checking for damage from the storm.
Technicians will have to mate the Europa Clipper spacecraft to SpaceX Falcon Heavy before they can roll it out to the launch pad. “Once we get to the pad, then there’s some time needed to prepare the pad and ready the spacecraft, and then, we’ll go off at the earliest possible opportunity,” said Europa Clipper project scientist Robert Pappalardo.
Inverse reports that while he was speaking to a crowd at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences on Tuesday he ventured that “at present, that looks like Sunday.”