ROCKETMAN'S ROCKETRY LESSON
Rockets are launched in launch "windows" lasting from a few minutes to several hours. Everything has to be "green" for the launch to take place, the rocket itself, the tracking radars, the telemetry sites, the crews up and down the range, safety, etc. If any one of those goes down, the launch is scrubbed and readied for the next window, which might be the next day, next week, or whatever. The worst thing you can do is launch a rocket prematurely and risk something going wrong.
Many years ago (don't ask me how many) I was a young, studly, rocketeer launching a rocket from a West Coast launch pad into the South Pacific. Knowing a bit about launch delays, I was well prepared for a nice 6 months of serious West Coast laid back sunning and funning (it was a lot more fun back then, don't ask me for details). The crews that had preceded me had been there for 6 months of aborted launch after aborted launch, until they finally launched their rockets.
You guessed it, we had the unfortunate luck of getting a "go" on everything on our first try, and we launched the next day, not giving me even time for a California tan.
So the lesson here is, if our rocket launch did not occur on schedule, just lay back and have fun thinking about what this baby is going to look like when it lifts off. Otherwise you would not even have time for a nice tan.
Remember how difficult it is to launch into a precise launch window even when you know the schedule. And we don't even have the schedule, we are just guessing.
All we know is that this is one humongous powerful rocket!! |
