Author Topic: Government shutdown delays commercial launch  (Read 798 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Government shutdown delays commercial launch
« on: January 04, 2019, 02:34:56 am »
Space News by Jeff Foust — January 3, 2019

The ongoing partial government shutdown has led one company to delay an upcoming launch and could affect other commercial launches in the near future, including a key commercial crew mission.

Exos Aerospace had planned to launch its SARGE suborbital rocket Jan. 5 from Spaceport America in New Mexico. That launch has been delayed to Feb. 9, John Quinn, chief operating officer of the company, said Jan. 2.

Quinn said a major reason for the delay was the inability of the company to get its existing launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation modified. The company was seeking to modify the license to change wind-related safety calculations in order to reduce the chance of a launch scrub.

“FAA was not supporting license modifications during the shutdown, so we delayed for the potential to decrease the probability of a scrub based on the wind placard restriction in our license,” he said.

More: https://spacenews.com/government-shutdown-delays-commercial-launch/