Coriolis Launch Delayed due to High Winds

Unacceptable winds have forced yet another delay in the launch of the Department of Defense’s Coriolis mission. Coriolis will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base’s SLC-4W aboard a converted Titan II ICBM. The next attempt will be Monday, 6 January.

According to the Department of Defense: “Coriolis is a test mission for the flight of two Defense Department payloads:

• Windsat, a Navy polar metric microwave radiometer experiment to passively measure ocean surface wind vector; and
• a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) to monitor solar activity with the goal of more accurately predicting geomagnetic disturbances to orbiting satellites.

The spacecraft’s two payloads will collect data continuously during its three year mission.”