Vehicles

Shuttle Delayed By Lightning

By Jesus Diaz on July 14, 2009 at 2:00 PM

The little thing at the bottom of this image is the space shuttle Endeavour, which was supposed to launch today. That huge glowing thing is a lightning striking from the sky. Not surprisingly, the launch has been delayed:

Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 15 at 6:03 p.m. EDT.

Monday’s attempt was canceled due to poor weather conditions within the launch area at NASA’s Kennedy Space centre in Florida. Anvil clouds and storm cells containing lightning flared up toward the end of the countdown, violating stringent launch safety rules.

“Technically, we’ve been really clean the last two days with our vehicle,” Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses said of Endeavour’s launch attempts on Sunday and Monday. “It’s just been the weather scenario that got us.”

The outlook is better on Wednesday, with only a 40 percent chance of weather conditions prohibiting liftoff.

Hopefully, it will work out and a new Japanese module will arrive soon to the International Space Station. [NASA]

Tagged:

endeavour

image cache

launch

lightning

nasa

shuttle

space

Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

matt

July 14, 2009 at 4:16 PM

why don’t they just divert all power to the shields?

Permalink Reply

Jakooboo_WantsACheeseDanish

July 14, 2009 at 2:57 PM

@bosskev: Haaaa!
:Laughed out loud
:Now cleaning semi-chewed Cheez-Doodles out of world's most expensive keyboard...

Jakooboo_WantsACheeseDanish
xbinflux

July 14, 2009 at 2:55 PM

I'm with this guy. Amoebas that big pretty much = scrubbed shuttle launches.
Jakooboo_WantsACheeseDanish

July 14, 2009 at 2:55 PM

Remember when they used to launch when lightning hit THE ACTUAL SHUTTLE? Lord... Engineers used to be so cool...

Jakooboo_WantsACheeseDanish
bosskev

July 14, 2009 at 2:22 PM

@Azteck: "What happens to the balls that NASA once had."

Lost 'em to the last round of budget cuts. However, the good news is that the Orlando Men's Choir now features the world's best sopranos.
Azteck

July 14, 2009 at 2:16 PM

What happens to the balls that NASA once had. Cant believe that they are delaying the launch due to some small thunder clouds in the area.

Azteck
slickfast

July 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM

What shocking news, Gizmodo. (See what I done did there?)

I'm pretty sure that's striking a lightning rod btw. If they can't think that far ahead, we are really in trouble.

slickfast
bosskev

July 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM

Lightning is bad, but I'd be much more concerned by all those gigantic otherworldly amoebas poised to attack.
Itspeat!

July 14, 2009 at 2:14 PM

damn, talk about inconvenience.

and go to bed Jesus! it's late haha well at least here in NJ it is
AkkiRonin

July 15, 2009 at 3:37 AM

@Azteck: One or two blown up shuttles will knock them right off.
The5thElephant

July 15, 2009 at 2:02 AM

@gallahad: Yeah in an emergency they had to hyperjump through the sun and now they don't know where they are in space.

The5thElephant
bosskev

July 15, 2009 at 1:50 AM

@LessthanZach: Apparently there is a glitch (no!) with the new system that is screwing around with the star icons/status. Other star commenters have likewise had their stars randomly vanish with no apparent cause. In fact, the Gizmodo staff with whom I have communicated don't know what is going on yet. A bug to, hopefully, be worked out soon.
dwarfgoat

July 15, 2009 at 12:47 AM

I don't have an AP style book handy, but I'm pretty sure that when referring to the proper name of a ship (in this case, the shuttle), that "Endeavor" should be spelled the way it's actually named (the American spelling, not the British/Canadian). Just saying...

dwarfgoat
gallahad

July 14, 2009 at 11:13 PM

@frigg: Have any humans actually been lost while in space? NASA's only losses have happened in-atmosphere, and the only Soviet losses I know of were the same. LEO itself must be pretty safe... it's just getting there and leaving it are the hard parts.

gallahad
frigg

July 14, 2009 at 10:39 PM

Interesting that despite the space shuttle's tendency to fly into space, its biggest safety threats have always occurred at the Earthâ€™s surface (weather, foam, O-ring).
eXo

July 14, 2009 at 10:17 PM

shocking

eXo
Atomische

July 14, 2009 at 9:20 PM

On a semi-related note, yesterday during the prelaunch I was listening to SomaFM Space Station, (http://somafm.com/) and they were mixing a live feed from the control room over the usual ambientechno music. It was actually very listenable, the astronauts and engineers mellow voices meshed with the music perfectly.
mr.leman

July 14, 2009 at 8:43 PM

@mr.leman: Wrong article, for some reason. and where the hell is the edit button?

mr.leman
mr.leman

July 14, 2009 at 8:34 PM

F*** You and your crazy train! I've been the Prince of Darkness since 1979!

mr.leman
LessthanZach

July 14, 2009 at 6:05 PM

@bosskev: Where the hell is your star dude? Clicking it doesn't work either.
LessthanZach

July 14, 2009 at 6:04 PM

The thumbnail on the homepage made this look like a photoshop mock up.
Looking at it now, all I can say is "Holy sh**". That is some "ferocious" lightning.
Windhawk

July 14, 2009 at 5:56 PM

Great pic of our newest Tesla powered shuttle!
driftingphotog

July 14, 2009 at 4:23 PM

@bosskev:

+1
finkelstein

July 15, 2009 at 12:10 PM

@Azteck: That lack of balls is what could've prevented those 2 minor accidents they had by following standard protocol.
Just sayin'.

finkelstein
Swobo

July 15, 2009 at 4:55 AM

@Azteck: There's a little thing called Electrostatic Discharge. While on the pad, the shuttle's protected from lightning, but if it get hit by lighting after liftoff, there's a very big possibility there will be a big explosion in the night sky. I don't think anybody has balls big enough to waste millions of dollars and the lives of the astronauts because of some "small thunder clouds in the area." The lightning's still there and a very real threat.
TheCodexx

July 14, 2009 at 2:49 PM

@Azteck: This delay is nothing but good thing. The two shuttle accidents were both caused by the people in charge of the launch not listening when the engineers wanted to give it another inspection, or had warned that some of the equipment may not work in certain weather.

Of course, with a deadline to meet and an awaiting public watching, they figured there wouldn't be a problem.

I'd really rather see the launch delayed than a big fireball.

TheCodexx