Plane kills Antares rocket launch
Dawn broke clear and brisk Saturday in Virginia over Wallops Island — perfect weather for a rocket launch.
Final checks showed that the Antares rocket was ready to go. And then it didn’t. With the countdown ticking down below two minutes, NASA’s range watchers suddenly noticed a blip on their radar screen. A small airplane had popped up as if out of nowhere in the middle of the offshore restricted area.
“At that point, they figured there was no way to get it out of the the hazard area in time,” said Kurt Eberly of Orbital ATK, the commercial aerospace company that flies the supply runs to the International Space Station.
There wasn’t enough time within the five-minute launch window to stop and start again, he said. So, the decision came down to scrub the launch and try again today at 7:14 a.m.
Last-minute halts aren’t uncommon in the persnickety world of rocketry. Wallops Flight Facility launches have been postponed by everything from inclement weather to boats straying into the hazard area.
But an airplane? That kind of impediment hadn’t cropped up in at least a decade, a NASA spokesman said.
Hosting its first major mission in more than a year, Wallops attracted the customary crush of visitors, braving subfreezing temperatures to jockey for a clear view of the island launch site in the distance to the southeast. When the countdown came and went without the trademark firing of engines and chest-thumping roar, a wave of disappointment seemed to wash over the crowd.
Joe Sunell Jr., who drove overnight from Bel Air, Md., to watch the launch, described his feelings by making the “womp womp” sound of a sad trombone.
“It comes with the territory,” said the veteran viewer of NASA launches. “Science is very fragile.”
Sheila Phillips rose from bed at 2 a.m. and made the trip with a friend from Falls Church to get her prime spot on a blanket.
“We were very optimistic, and it’s so beautiful out right now,” she said, adding that the two of them would have to talk about whether to return for Sunday’s second try.
Orbital attributed the delay to a “small aircraft” spotted flying at 500 feet about 6 miles offshore.
“We were working no issues until an aircraft flew into restricted airspace,” the company said on Twitter. “We are currently de-tanking and will be ready to go (this) morning.”
Eberly said that, contrary to rumor spreading on social media, the aircraft wasn’t a commercial flight. It was flying “low and slow so it doesn’t fit the profile of an airliner,” he said.
The interior of the rocket is packed to the brim with crew supplies and science experiments weighing a total of 7,400 pounds, the equivalent of three Toyota Corollas. If today’s launch is successful, the rocket’s Cygnus capsule is expected to reach the space station Tuesday.
If it does get off the ground today, the spacecraft should be visible from Connecticut to the Carolinas, according to Orbital’s calculations.