CAPE CANAVERAL (Fla.) NASA officials stated today that SpaceX's Halloween launch of an astronaut for the agency won't be affected by a huge solar flare that's expected to reach Earth this weekend.
Launch will take place at 2:21 AM EDT (0621 GMT), on Sunday, Oct. 31. Space.com allows you to live-stream the launch and any prelaunch action. Four astronauts from NASA, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, along with Matthias Maurer, European Space Agency (ESA), will be launching on a six month mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
On Friday, Oct. 29, Agency officials and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson discussed the upcoming flight. They stated that the mission was scheduled to launch on Sunday morning. Kathy Lueders (associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington) was asked how a large solar flare would affect the mission.
Video: Solar x-flare explodes coronal mass eruption toward Earth
SpaceX's Crew-3 mission to the astronauts is live updated
In this NASA image, an X1-class solar flare erupts out of an Earth-facing sunspot. This was taken from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Image credit: NASA/SDO, EVE, HMI and AIA science teams.
Thursday, Oct. 28, saw a powerful X1 class solar flare erupt from the sun. It sent a huge cloud of charged particles hurtling towards Earth. The cloud will arrive in the Earth's atmosphere over Halloween weekend. It is expected to amplify the sun's regular northern lights. NASA is able to ignore it as it does not pose any threat to the launch. The main concern is the weather along the abort corridor.
The 45th Space Delta forecasters continue to predict favorable conditions at the launch site. However, it's quite different downrange. SpaceX and NASA must monitor multiple weather areas to ensure that the flight is safe and successful.
Weather officials and agency representatives say they will continue to monitor weather conditions for the moment, but that they are still on track for an early morning flight on Halloween.
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