As expected, weather is delaying Orbital’s next commercial cargo mission to the ISS, two days before the original launch. Orbital announced Wednesday afternoon that the launch will slip from Friday, July 11, to Saturday the 12th. Severe thunderstorms Tuesday night at Wallops delayed the rollout of the rocket, and Orbital, as a result, decided to slip the launch schedule by a day. The new launch time is 1:14 pm EDT (1714 GMT) Saturday. The launch delay, though, will not delay the berthing of Orbital’s Cygnus, which is still scheduled for July 15 at 7:24 am EDT (1124 GMT).
The one-day slip should also result in better weather at launch time. Current forecasts include for a significant chance of thundershowers Friday afternoon, but the forecast for Saturday calls for clearer, and drier, conditions, which should also hold for Sunday if there’s another delay.
Leave a Reply