BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, set to launch NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars, was grounded today because of space weather. Elevated solar activity and the potential effects on the spacecraft prompted the delay.
The same geomagnetic storms that postponed the launch also produced a rare light show last night, with the Northern Lights visible as far south as Central Florida.
Dr. Don Platt with Florida Tech explained, “The sun is definitely always active and dynamic and always changing, and so it’s always releasing charged particles or basically nuclear particles that can expose then any spacecraft or certainly any humans that might happen to be out there to a significant amount of radiation.” ESCAPADE is an unscrewed Mars mission.
A pair of satellites bound for Mars will study the planet’s magnetic field and how it interacts with space weather to better prepare for future human and robotic missions.
Platt told us, “If we’ve got an extra couple days in your launch window, there’s no reason to try to subject the spacecraft to anything more than it absolutely has to deal with.”
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