Our Universe: the sciences & the human perspective

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Launching of the Space Shuttle Is Delayed After Lightning Strike

By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: August 27, 2006

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 26 — One of Florida’s frequent summer lightning storms forced NASA on Saturday to postpone for at least one day Sunday’s planned launching of the shuttle Atlantis on a mission to resume construction of the International Space Station.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said a large lightning strike at the launching pad during a storm on Friday afternoon initially appeared to cause no damage. However, a couple of indications of potential problems required them to postpone the launching and examine the shuttle and pad more carefully.

“We took a significant lightning strike,” said LeRoy Cain, director of shuttle integration at the Kennedy Space Center. The strike, carrying a current of about 100,000 amperes, struck a lightning rod atop the gantry around the shuttle and might have been the largest bolt ever to have struck a launching pad at the center, he said.

...for more: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/science/27Shuttle.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin