News - October 2001- Solar Flare halts NASA launch .
John
Innes.
AN
INTENSE solar flare forced postponement of the first orbital to
be launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex, NASA officials said.
The
launch of an Athena rocket, which had already been delayed, was
postponed another 48 hours as the effects of Monday's solar flare
intensified, NASA announced in a statement.
According
to experts on space weather, conditions would not be acceptable
for a launch until about three and a half days after the peak of
the solar flare. A team led by Professor John Brown, the Astronomer
Royal for Scotland, will analyse data sent back from the satellite,
which orbits at a height of 373 miles. The mission has been timed
to take advantage of the Sun just passing the peak of its 11-year
cycle of activity, when explosions are at their largest and most
frequent.
The
NASA satellite, which will stay in orbit for up to three years,
will carry a single instrument to study the huge energy releases
from the Sun.
© The
Scotsman Publications Ltd.
Source:
SCOTSMAN 27/09/2001 P7
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