KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – With less than 24 hours to go before the scheduled rocket launch of the university-headed space mission to punch a crater into a comet, only Mother Nature and Father Time stand in the way of a successful launch.
Although the National Weather Service issued a severe fog warning this morning and it rained intermittently this afternoon, Air Force weather officer Joel Tumbiolo said at a press conference today there will be a “90 percent” chance of good weather tomorrow. The project’s launch window is open until Jan. 28, though Tumbiolo said weather conditions are expected to worsen as a cold front pushes its way into the area.
A Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the automobile-sized Deep Impact spacecraft out of the atmosphere is scheduled to launch at 1:47 p.m. tomorrow. After delivery, the spacecraft will begin a 6-month journey into the path of the comet Tempel I.
In the final 24 hours before impact, the spacecraft will separate into an impactor and a flyby. On July 4, Tempel I will crash into the impactor at a relative speed of 23,000 miles per hour, destroying it, while the flyby records the event and relays data from the impactor back to Earth.
Scientists are interested in comets’ interiors because they are believed to be undisturbed since the birth of the solar system; punching a crater into Tempel I should give scientists a geologic snapshot from that time.
Officials previously scheduled tomorrow’s launch for 1:08 p.m., but opted for the later launch because the assembled Delta II rocket was heavier than expected, said Deep Impact science team member Jessica Sunshine. The extra weight threw off precise calculations.
University astronomy professor Michael A’Hearn heads the $313 million project. NASA is will broadcast launch coverage live at www.nasa.gov/ntv. More information on Deep Impact is available at www.deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov.
