What kinds of weather events could cause a scrub for an expendable launch vehicle, such as a Delta?
TUMBIOLO: A variety of things: a thunderstorm within 10 miles of the launch pad, a thunderstorm anvil cloud within 10 miles of the launch pad, a lightning strike within 10 miles of the launch pad, a cumulous cloud that has not necessarily developed into a thunderstorm but is large enough and is close enough to the launch pad such that it could cause triggered lightning, and other things, such as ground winds exceeding a certain level would also cause a scrub. DILLER: How is it determined whether the Delta can handle wind shears? TUMBIOLO: We use upper-level balloons, rawinsondes, as we call them. We launch several of them during the launch countdown and from the data that we get from those balloons — upper-level winds, direction and speed — the Delta engineers, they crank these numbers through their computers and they’re able to determine if the winds will affect, the wind shears will affect the vehicle as it’s going through space. DILLER: Can you explain a little bit more about what
