Houston, I think we have a problem. It’s Newfoundland’s weather.
NordSpace was set to launch its rocket in St. Lawrence, located on the Burin Peninsula, on Monday but poor weather conditions have repeatedly stalled the launch.
Early Wednesday morning, the company announced on its website it would not be launching that day because weather conditions are forecasted to be significantly more favourable on Thursday or Friday.
CEO Rahul Goel said on Monday wind is the biggest weather factor that can impact a launch because there isn’t a mechanism on the rocket to steer it in the right direction.
“It goes off the launch rail, along the launch rail and maintains the specific trajectory. So that’s why the wind is really important in this case,” he said.
In the meantime, the NordSpace team will still be conducting a full rehearsal launch on Wednesday to make sure the systems remain operational.
During the rehearsal launch, the rocket will go up in the air only a few kilometres and for 45 seconds — but not all the way to space.
Rahul Goel says he grew up watching rocket launches and knows they are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Now his own rocket, a six-metre tall Taiga rocket, is in the same situation in St. Lawrence. The CBC’s Peter Cowan has more.
Goel said the delays are due to Hurricane Erin moving just south of Atlantic Canada.
“If we launched anytime in the last month, pretty much every day was perfect.” he said. “But again, nothing that we’re not prepared for. St. Lawrence is a great site.”
Roel says he is used to the anticipation of waiting for a rocket launch.
“We’ve been watching rocket launches our whole lives,” he said, adding that members of the team will wake up in the middle of the night to watch other launches around the world.
“So we’re really used to waiting for days, weeks, sometimes months for certain missions to launch,” he said.
“These are very sensitive, very expensive and safety is involved. So everyone wants to make sure that they go really well.”
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