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Planetary News: Rosetta (2004)High Winds Delay Rosetta LaunchBy A.J.S. Rayl26 February 2004 The launch of the European Space Agency's comet chaser -- Rosetta -- was put on hold for 24 hours, because of high wind conditions at Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. In the meantime, both the Ariane 5G launch vehicle and Rosetta have been put in a safe mode. One of the most ambitious and complex robotic space projects ever undertaken, Rosetta is the first spacecraft that will attempt to orbit a comet's nucleus, and then deliver a lander to its surface. The trip will take a decade, with the spacecraft slated to arrive at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014. First proposed in 1985, approved in 1993, and postponed in 2003, Rosetta has 'traveled' a somewhat long and rocky road in getting to the launchpad. The spacecraft was to have been carried aloft onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, in January 2003, for an eight-year trek to Comet Wirtanen, but that date 'slipped' after the rocket -- one of the few in the world with the payload lift capability needed to launch the three-ton spacecraft into orbit and send it on its way to the distant comet -- failed in a pre-launch test in December 2002. It was the fourth Ariane 5 failure in 16 attempts since the model's inauguration in the mid-1990s, and it led to the postponing of the mission -- and something of a budgetary crisis for the space agency. That delay came with a hefty price tag for ESA, now estimated to be around 70 million Euros [about $87.5 million U.S.], pushing total costs for Rosetta up to around 1 billion Euros [about $1.25 billion U.S.]. The delay last year also meant that the mission's original target, Comet Wirtanen, could not be reached. By March 2003, however, the comet-chaser's new target -- Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko had been singled out as the leading contender -- for a launch this month. Following that, ESA's ministers in charge of space affairs in Europe agreed during their summit in Paris in May, to resolve the budgetary crisis that had been threatening Rosetta, essentially green-lighting the mission. Arianespace Chief Executive Officer Jean-Yves Le Gall announced the hold approximately 20 minutes before the scheduled lift-off time, at 7:36 Greenwich Mean Time Thursday morning [11:36 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Wednesday February 25]. Unlike many launches, Rosetta has an optimal launch window of just a couple of seconds each day - what Le Gall calls "a launch instant." A series of such 'launch instants' occurs until March 17. |
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