MOSCOW. (Konstantin Bogdanov for RIA Novosti)...
The launch was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but the thunderstorm clouds that passed over Florida on that day frustrated NASA’s plans. The three-minute countdown started nonetheless, but the launch was suspended due to surging gusts of wind. “We had some opportunities, we just didn’t get there – the weather didn’t cooperate,” launch director Edward Mango said with bitter irony at the end of the day.
Only on the following day, half an hour before the end of the four-hour launch window, the weather offered a minor chance, which NASA managed to use virtually propelling the rocket into a break in clouds. The future carrier rocket of the space program Constellation took off from the launch pad, rose to the height of 40 kilometers in two minutes, and the first stage successfully separated. An upper stage mass simulator with over 700 sensors, which kept the launch team updated on the flight progress, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.