FAA clears European asteroid probe for launch, but stormy weather threatens delay

October 7, 2024 Benjamin Hughes

After days of uncertainty, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Sunday that SpaceX had been cleared to press ahead with the planned Monday launch of the European Space Agency’s $398 million Hera asteroid probe, stormy weather permitting.

With forecasters calling for an 85% chance of thick clouds and showers that would trigger a delay, Hera’s launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is targeted for 10:52 a.m. EDT Monday. The forecast is 75% “no-go” if launch is delayed to Tuesday.

“The last hurdle is the weather. So, please, please, I need you to do something about it!” Hera project manager Ian Carnelli joked with reporters Sunday. “It’s the only thing I really cannot control. … It looks like we have some opening around the time of launch, but it’s really impossible to say at the moment.”

An artist’s impression of the European Space Agency’s Hera probe (left) and two small sub-satellites that will orbit the asteroid Didymos and its small moon Dimorphos to learn more about how the high-speed impact of NASA’s DART probe in September 2022 altered the moonlet’s orbit and structure. Both missions are part of an effort to determine how to safely deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

ESA

Hurricane Milton, meanwhile, poses threats throughout the week as the cyclone is expected to cross the Florida peninsula Wednesday and move out over the Atlantic Ocean near Florida’s Space Coast.

William Harwood

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

Source: cbsnews.com