17 ms·

Which commercial rocket launches care about planetary alignments?

• kristofferR 11mo ago
  It's right in the article: "One launch hoping to get off the ground before the order goes into effect is NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars. The Rocket Lab-built twin orbiters are scheduled to liftoff on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket at 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT) on Nov. 9. The impending restrictions mean the ESCAPADE mission won't have a chance to reset for a second launch attempt if the Nov. 9 liftoff is scrubbed for some reason." Don't forget that commercial launches may still have a government/science org as their customer in question.
• dylan604 11mo ago
  From TFA: "One launch hoping to get off the ground before the order goes into effect is NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars. The Rocket Lab-built twin orbiters are scheduled to liftoff on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket at 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT) on Nov. 9. The impending restrictions mean the ESCAPADE mission won't have a chance to reset for a second launch attempt if the Nov. 9 liftoff is scrubbed for some reason." So it sounds like Blue Origin would be concerned
• adastra22 11mo ago
  Most (all?) NASA spacecraft fly on commercial launches these days.
  • wat10000 11mo ago
    There pretty much aren't any other kinds these days. The only noncommercial launcher currently flying is SLS, and "currently flying" is a bit of a stretch. The last launch was three years ago and the next one won't be until next year at the earliest.
• terminalshort 11mo ago
  Those which are launching payloads outside of Earth orbit. However the launch windows for those tend to be wider and not rely on time of day so much. It's the rockets that need to hit a particular slot in Earth orbit that need to launch at an exact time of day.