I wonder how much it costs every time NASA tries to launch and has to CXL do to weather.
they have had TS around the launch pad for the last few hours. It’s been obvious that they will not be able to launch YET they still continue to plug away.
I know there is something to say about keeping constant, but come on boys lets save money when we can.
Come on, being a pilot you should understand. WX can change on a dime and when you’ve got orbits and paths to consider, you need to be ready.
How many times have you launched with just the hope that the weather would improve?
Should the question have been worded “How many times **have you waited **to launch with the hope the weather would improve?” 
It costs about 1/100 the cost to cancel due to weather as opposed to NOT canceling due to weather January 28, 1986, Google it.
I don’t think you understand my question.
The weather had been bad most of the day. there was lighting strikes close to the launch pad. there were TC to FL460 with in miles of the launch pad yet they continued with the count down.
My point being- how much did it cost NASA to continue the count down when they knew it wasn’t going to launch.
Had they been Air mass TS I could see them being optimistic. I guess I’m just sick of seeing money being wasted.
On a side note- am I the only one that LOVES, Nova science Now?
I’m sure they have some archaic regulation that requires them to continue the countdown, but it sure is retarded.
scienceNOW is badass. And to think I used to avoid Nova like the plague, unless I wanted to go to sleep.
We had some NASA channel on our Dish Network that broadcast live shuttle and space station broadcasts. Many an early morning was spent watching and giving my mind and imagination a workout before going to work and destroying them both.
I seem to remember reading something about an up-and-coming aviation devoted cable network (or something to this extent)…no doubt someone will chime in with the correct link.
By canceling early, I doubt you could save more than a few thousand $ in evaporated cryo liquids. Meanwhile the thousands of launch support people get to charge a day of work anyway, and it costs money just to tend to the orbiter whenever it sits on the pad. That labor cost is where all the money goes, and there’s no day-by-day or hour-by-hour throttle for it. This is a different business, not like house painters and regional pilots.
A rocket is basically a gigantic bomb with a small crew compartment on it. I’d guess the STS at launch is >80% fuel and oxidizer by weight. And the STS system is fairly fragile, as the two disasters have shown. The reason they seen timid about so many conditions is that they’ve learned those are real risks.
Plus launch scheduling is completely different from airlines, because of orbital dynamics. If the STS is 20 min late taking off, it would not be able to reach ISS at all before it runs out of time and fuel and other resources. Suppose you were the pilot on an airline that couldn’t fly in rain and could only take off in one 5-min period per day. That’s what STS is like. You can’t make it work like city bus. And like Meek said, it’s cheaper to wait a day than watch it fail catastrophically.
The launch attempt Tues night was kind of a nail-biter: if the storms had moved out 20 min sooner, they could have launched on time, and then you wouldn’t have to babysit it for another day or three. If you had sent people home at 4pm, you wouldn’t get that chance.
I was in Titusville to view the scheduled launch this past Tuesday morning.
The weather was pretty good when I got there about 6 hours before launch. It slowly deteriorated afterward. I don’t think I had ever seen so much lightning in my life. About 30 minutes before launch, at T-minus 9:00 and holding, the weather improved greatly, the lightning stopped and the ceiling lifted. About 1 minute before the countdown resumed, they were still no go on cumulus clouds near the SLF and scrubbed.
Launch conditions would have been fine as the precip stopped and they moved put of phased lightning warnings. However, cumulus clouds would have prevented an ATLS if necessary, about 30 minutes after launch.
Weather is extremely unpredictable in Florida. They went from 80% go 4 hours before launch to 40% go 2 hours prior to launch.
They do their best to get that thing off the ground but do not jeopardize safety, especially after the 2 disasters. One of which may have been prevented.
They got 'er up tonight. It was an uneventful launch, they say.
Watched it from the roof of my future in-laws
i watched it on nasa tv.com.
my point in aborting due to weather is the challenger didn’t abort just because of a little ice here and there, and it cost 7 people their lives, and almost cost the program its life.
i believe they have only 6 launches left until they abandon the program anyway
i think they (NASA) didn’t wait for the weather and launch a few time with fatal consequences… now perhaps they realize their job maybe on the life if it goes wrong again… and its better ‘to be safe than sorry’… 
Freezing Temps and clear sky’s are MUCH different then Thunderstorms with tops to FL460
LMFAO