An eye on the weather....

[toprob]

This week I've been occasionally loading a saved 'flight' to check the weather over Māhia, for the Rocket Lab launch. At the moment they are aiming at Sunday afternoon, but the weather has certainly been a bit unco-operative lately. Still, it is starting to look better....



As a baby-boomer who was raised on 60s sci-fi, the fact that NZ now has a space program is one of those things which just blows my mind. So fingers crossed for tomorrow's launch!
The Peninsula is included in the Godzone subscription, but of course it doesn't include the launch facility -- I have been looking at an update to include the launch pad, but really the missing link is a good elevation mesh -- the available meshes are just not up to defining the cliffs properly, so it looks kind of lacking without a good 1 metre mesh! Still, I'll be ready when LINZ get around to it.

They do a live feed of each launch, so if you are interested,check it out here.

[Splitpin]

will be watching.

[Fozzer]

Lots of man-made stuff floating around up there at the mo'...>>>

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-e ... juno-craft

I spend hours in bed each night trying to soak up the; "Universe" stuff, and its size!

Our tiny Planet Earth, in our tiny Solar System, in our tiny Milky Way Galaxy, amongst all the other Galaxies and all the other stuff, far, far away, out there.

Distances measured in Light-Years, and speeds beyond imagination!

The magnitude of it takes some absorbing!

On a BBC Science program recently, there was an animation, zooming from planet Earth, out to the far edges of the known Universe, describing everything in its path along the way!

Enuf to blow your/my mind!

Paul...must spend more time in bed, actually sleeping!... ...!

Space....It's pretty BIG!.....>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTHe-mOtqfA

[Charl]

Great post... The ever-shrinking technology of space vehicles is playing right to the strengths of this excellent NZ outfit.
So cool that you can get your cube into space for under $100k.

I see the rain might move off later on, wind still 23km/h at launch time though.
I wonder what the upper limit would be?

[cowpatz]

When I passed thru Rarotonga yesterday I was chatting to a Maori bloke, whilst eating my fresh fish lunch, at the lagoon boat ramp/wharf by Muri beach. His family once owned the farm that Rocket labs now use. He remarked that the ghosts of his ancestors that are buried there must be amazed at what is there now.
Rocket labs used to have their control centre at the NZALPA (NZ airline pilots association) office buildings in Mangere but as they got larger they relocated to Mt Wellington.

[toprob]

Brilliant, CP.
I see they've closed the airspace, which is a good sign -- means they are seriously considering a launch today. Maybe 7pm.

[Charl]

Launch Complex 1 - Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand
Rocket Lab successfully launched the ELaNa-19 mission for NASA from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula at 06:33 UTC/ 19:33 NZDT 16 December 2018. (22:33 PST 15 December/ 01:33 EST 16 December)

I missed it, sadly.
Replays are no good either, they lose 99% of the sense of drama.
Pretty clever stuff, really. And these guys are totally professional, they make it look almost mundane.

[Aharon]

great screenshot!!!

And for anyone such as me who is not well versed or real pro in New Zealand aviation stuff, what is the specific waypoint above New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula, please?

Thanks,

Aharon

[cowpatz]

Route H386 from Gisborne NZGS to Napier NZNR is a dog leg route that passes close to Mahia peninsula and just enters the launch restricted area NZ R 401. The closest waypoints are COOKS and MAHIA with HAWKE to the West.

If you go onto www.skyvector.com (a great free charting resource) you can see the area.

Cheers
Steve

[toprob]

Yeah, the launch was pretty much a repeat of the previous one, they do have it down to an art. My daughter rang just before launch, she didn't know it was happening, so I had to explain why our conversation was a bit disjointed...
Only in NZ do we get launches where they 'had an informal poll of the sheep', for a go/no go.
I know I get excited about weird stuff, but hey, I have to get my kicks where I can! I might time my next North Island road trip to co-incide with a launch, it's on my bucket-list.

[Aharon]

Thanks, Cowpatz for cool answers and thanks to ToProb for educating or letting me know about cool Rocket Lab launch program in New Zealand's Māhia Peninsula.

Regards,

Aharon

[cowpatz]

Only in NZ do we get launches where they 'had an informal poll of the sheep', for a go/no go.

Now if you could just tether a few of those sheep close to the launch site then ....hey presto...BBQ lamb for the celebrations!!