Antares NG-18 Scrubbed Due To Fire Alarm At Mission Control
- Josh G
- Nov 6, 2022
- 2 min read
Written By: Josh G for Onkla
The countdown to NG-18 began at 1:30am EST with all teams on console for the launch of the Cygnus re-supply vehicle to the International Space Station. However, after a good countdown, a fire alarm sounded at the Cygnus mission control center which scrubbed the mission for this window.
Antares 230+ Rocket on LP-0A Ready To Launch NG-18! - Photo: Josh G for Onkla
At 1:30am EST the countdown began with all teams at their stations, ready to support another mission to the International Space Station. The Antares rocket sat vertical on Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Virginia. All teams polled go and propellant load began.
Venting then became visible to spectators watching this launch from Virginia. The big vent on the Transporter Erector (T.E.) was venting lots of propellant which signified that Antares was in a healthy state prior to its launch. The Transporter Erector then retracted around two degrees away from the Antares launch vehicle. This is to prepare the tower for the full speed retraction back to a fourty degree angle at liftoff.
This rocket was carrying a full payload bay with only one kilogram of extra volume to spare. The engineers working on the Antares 230+ vehicle have found a way to increase performance by tweaking both the first and second stage. This allows 70 extra kilograms to be launched on Antares.
Antares 230+ on LP-0A after the launch was scrubbed
After what seemed like a good countdown, the launch was delayed until 5:55am, which was the end of the launch window. So, that means if they did not launch at 5:55, they would have to scrub to the next day. Countdown continued nominally until a fire alarm sounded at the Cygnus mission control center. The non-critical personel evacuated the building. However, the critical personel (launch director, launch controller, etc.) had to remain inside of the building until the vehicle was considered in a safe state. Once they put Antares into a safe state, the entire building was evacuated.
Putting Antares into a safe state meant that the launch was scrubbed for the day. The next launch opportunity is Monday, November 7, 2022 at 5:27am eastern time. This should also do some sort of Jellyfish effect as it would have on the 6th. This mission will be visible to major portions of the east coast. So tune into our livestream to get live video feeds of this launch!
Onkla coverage of the NG-18 Mission.
I was actually at the "Old NASA Terminal Ferry Dock," which is around 2.1 miles away from LP-0A and LP-0B. However, since the launch scrubbed, I will no longer be at Wallops for this launch. Instead, I will be viewing it from southern Maryland where I should also be able to see the launch!
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